Effects of absorption in small-angle scattering of polarized protons

We analyze the recently discovered phenomena in elastic proton–proton scattering at the LHC, challenging the standard Regge-pole theory: the low-|t| “break” (departure from the exponential behavior of the diffraction cone), the accelerating rise with energy of the forward slope B(s, t = 0), absence of secondary dips and bumps on the cone, and the role of the odderon in the forward phase of the amplitude, ρ(13 TeV) = 0.1 ± 0.01 and, especially, its contribution at the dip region, measured recently by TOTEM. Relative contributions from different components to the scattering amplitude are evaluated from the fitted model.