Elastic scattering of P/sup +-/,. pi. /sup +-/ and K/sup +-/ on protons at high energies and small momentum transfer

We have measured the elastic differential cross section for p/sup +-/p, ..pi../sup +-/p and K/sup +-/p at 100 GeV/c and 200 GeV/c in the range 0.03 < vertical bar t vertical bar < 0.10 (GeV/c)/sup 2/. We find that in this t range the data display a simple exponential dependence. Our slope parameters are consistent with other measurements in this region and with extrapolations from higher t. Data for ..pi../sup -/p ..-->.. ..pi../sup -/p at lower values of t appear to have significantly higher slopes. A discontinuous break in the differential cross section would violate unitarity. We find that the data can be fitted by a continuous, albeit rapidly changing, function of t that satisfies unitarity constraints