Two-body weak reactions of hadrons at very high energies

Two-body hadronic scattering through weak interactions is investigated theoretically in the energy region accessible at the National Accelerator Laboratory. In the ordinary current ×current form of weak interactions, the following quantities are calculated for charge-exchange weak hadronic reactions: (i) the differential cross section, the polarization of a final baryon, and the asymmetry in the angular distribution of scattering from a polarized target for strangeness-changing processes, and (ii) the interference of weak-interaction amplitudes with strong-interaction amplitudes for processes to which both weak and strong interactions contribute. The interference with strong amplitudes is discussed by means of a straight ex-trapolation of existing Regge analysis at lower energies (less than 30 GeV). Differential cross sections near the forward direction are typically of the order of 10-38 cm2 in d σd cosθ in the center-of-mass frame. The interference between weak and strong amplitudes is unfortunately only one part in 104-105 for the πN charge-exchange scattering in spite of the different high-energy behavior. All calculations are supposed to be valid at high energies up to absorption corrections due to a Regge cut generated by the Pomeranchukon and a fixed pole at J=1 from the weak amplitude. Inelastic scattering is also briefly mentioned. Charge-nonexchange processes are discussed in connection with a test for the existence of neutral weak currents.