Investigation of the leading and subleading high-energy behavior of hadron-hadron total cross sections using a best-fit analysis of hadronic scattering data

In the present investigation we study the leading and subleading high-energy behavior of hadron-hadron total cross sections using a best-fit analysis of hadronic scattering data. The parametrization used for the hadron-hadron total cross sections at high energy is inspired by recent results obtained by Giordano and Meggiolaro [J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2014) 002] using a nonperturbative approach in the framework of QCD, and it reads: sigma_tot = B ln^2 s + C ln s ln ln s. We critically investigate if B and C can be obtained by means of best-fits to data for proton-proton and antiproton-proton scattering, including recent data obtained at the LHC, and also to data for other meson-baryon and baryon-baryon scattering processes. In particular, following the above-mentioned nonperturbative QCD approach, we also consider fits where the parameters B and C are set to B = kappa B_th and C = kappa C_th, where B_th and C_th are universal quantities related to the QCD stable spectrum, while kappa (treated as an extra free parameter) is related to the asymptotic value of the ratio sigma_el/sigma_tot. Different possible scenarios are then considered and compared.