Nature of the Beam-Beam Limit in Storage Rings

The experimental results relating to the beam-beam interaction in electron storage rings and the ISR (p-p collisions) are considered. The question of whether or not stochasticity is implied by these results is discussed. It is argued that all the available evidence on the beam-beam limit is not inconsistent within an isolated resonance framework. A model which qualitatively fits the observations, one which is derived from classical resonance theory, is proposed.