Do we understand elastic scattering up to LHC energies?

The measurements of high energy \bar p p and pp elastic at ISR, SPS and Tevatron colliders have provided usefull informations on the behavior of the scattering amplitude. A large step in energy domain is accomplished with the LHC collider presently running, giving a unique opportunity to improve our knowledge on the asymptotic regime of the elastic scattering amplitude and to verify the validity of our theoretical approach, to describe the total cross section \sigma_{tot}(s), the total elastic cross section \sigma_{el}(s), the ratio of the real to imaginary parts of the forward amplitude \rho(s) and the differential cross section d\sigma (s,t)/dt.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Invited talk at " DIFFRACTION 2012"', Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote Canary Islands (Spain), September 10-15 2012, to appear in AIP Conference Proceedings (2013

Looking into the Future of Spin and QCD

Several stimulating open questions in high energy spin physics will be described together with the striking progress recently achieved in this field. In view of the new experimental facilities and the new tools, soon available, I will try to anticipate what we will learn next. The prospects for the future are excellent and clearly, some exciting times are ahead of us.Comment: Closing Lecture at SPIN2002, BNL 8-14/09/02, 10 pages, 3 figure

A new search strategy for the Higgs boson

We propose a novel mechanism for exclusive diffractive Higgs production $pp \to Hpp$, in which the Higgs carries a significant fraction of the projectile proton's momentum. This mechanism will then provide a clear experimental signal for Higgs production, due to the small background in this kinematic region. The key assumption underlying our analysis is the presence of intrinsic charm (IC) and intrinsic bottom (IB) fluctuations in the proton bound state, whose existence, at high light-cone momentum fraction $x$, has a substantial and growing experimental and theoretical support.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Talk presented at the International Conference on QCD and Hadronic Physics, Beijing, June 16-20 (2005

Recent Progress in the Statistical Approach of Parton Distributions

We recall the physical features of the parton distributions in the quantum statistical approach of the nucleon. Some predictions from a next-to-leading order QCD analysis are compared to recent experimental results. We also consider their extension to include their transverse momentum dependence.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Invited talk at DIFFRACTION 2010, Otranto, Italy, September 10 - 15, 2010, to appear in the AIP Conference Proceeding

Recent results in the Statistical Approach of Polarized PDF and Extension to Baryon Fragmentation Functions

Parton distributions are constructed in a statistical physical picture of the nucleon. The chiral properties of QCD lead to strong relations between quarks and antiquarks distributions and the importance of the Pauli exclusion principle is also emphasized. A global next-to-leading order QCD analysis of unpolarized and polarized deep-inelastic scattering data is performed to determine a small number of free parameters. Some predictions are compared to recent experimental results. We also present an extension of the statistical approach to the description of baryon fragmentation functions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, talk presented at DIS2003, XI Int. Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering, St. Petersburg, 23-27 April,200