The perturbative QCD formula for minijet production constitutes an important ingredient in models describing the total cross section and multiparticle production in hadron-hadron scattering at high energies. Using arguments based on $s$-channel unitarity we set bounds on the minimum value of $pt$ for which the leading-twist minijet formula can be used. For large impact parameters where correlations between partons appear to be small we find that the minimum value of $p_t^c$ should be greater than 2.5 GeV for LHC energies and greater than 3.5 GeV for cosmic ray energies of about 50 TeV. We also argue that for collisions with values of impact parameters typical for heavy particle production the values of minimum $p_t$ are likely to be considerably larger. We also analyze and quantify the potential role of saturation effects in the gluon density. We find that although saturation effects alone are not sufficient to restore unitarity, they are likely to play an important role at LHC energies.

• Received 1 January 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.77.114009