Coulomb-Nuclear Interference: Theory and Practice for pp-Scattering at 13 TeV

We provide a detailed reconsideration of the theoretical basis for the treatment of Coulomb-nuclear interference (CNI) and a corresponding thorough analysis of the procedure of extraction of the basic parameters $\rho^{~pp}, \sigma_{tot}^{~pp}$ and $B^{~pp}$ from the TOTEM data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV. A more substantiated account of CNI, as well as an in-depth statistical analysis of the TOTEM data at low transferred momenta, give results that differ from those published by the TOTEM collaboration.