Quantum chromodynamics and the rise of hadronic total cross sections

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Abstract
We have computed the sum of all multiparton-production cross sections induced by one hard-gluon exchange in the leading-logarithm approximation of QCD for high-energy hadronic collisions. The rise of hadronic total cross sections is explained by the excess of the rise of parton multiplicities with respect to the decrease of each individual cross section. We have shown that this rise is very sensitive to only one free parameter, namely the mass of the constituent quark, but not to other nonperturbative effects. With a reasonable value of 350 MeV, we have obtained a rise of 15 mb between CERN ISR and collider energies.