High-energy behaviour in a non-Abelian gauge theory. I

This is the first part of an attempt to find a unitary high-energy description of a spontaneously broken non-Abelian gauge theory. In this paper the high-energy behaviour of n → m amplitudes in the leading ln s approximation is calculated. The authors start from tree approximations and then only use dispersion relations and unitarity equations for elastic and inelastic amplitudes in the multi-Regge limit. The resulting amplitudes have multi-Regge behaviour with simple pole exchange, and satisfy s-channel unitarity in all channels. There is, however, no vacuum quantum number exchange (pomeron) in this approximation. A scheme which may lead to a unitary description of the pomeron is outlined briefly. (Auth.)