Extrema bounds for the soft Pomeron intercept

By using an extended Regge parametrization and taking into account the discrepancies in the high-energy pp and p¯p total cross section data in both accelerator and cosmic-ray regions, we estimate extrema bounds for the soft Pomeron intercept. First we consider two ensembles of data with either the CDF or the E710 and E811 results for σ_tot^p¯p at 1.8 TeV, from which we obtain the bounds 1.102 and 1.081, respectively. These ensembles are then combined with the highest and lowest estimations for σ_tot^pp from cosmic-ray experiments (6-40 TeV), leading to the upper and lower bounds 1.109 and 1.082, respectively. The effects of simultaneous fits to σ_tot and ρ, individual fits to σ_tot, and the influence of the subtraction constant in the dispersion relations are also presented. Our global results favor the E710 and E811 data.