  A precision measurement of absolute pi+p and pi-p elastic differential cross
sections at incident pion laboratory kinetic energies from T_pi= 141.15 to
267.3 MeV is described. Data were obtained detecting the scattered pion and
recoil proton in coincidence at 12 laboratory pion angles from 55 to 155
degrees for pi+p, and six angles from 60 to 155 degrees for pi-p. Single arm
measurements were also obtained for pi+p energies up to 218.1 MeV, with the
scattered pi+ detected at six angles from 20 to 70 degrees. A flat-walled,
super-cooled liquid hydrogen target as well as solid CH2 targets were used. The
data are characterized by small uncertainties, ~1-2% statistical and ~1-1.5%
normalization. The reliability of the cross section results was ensured by
carrying out the measurements under a variety of experimental conditions to
identify and quantify the sources of instrumental uncertainty. Our lowest and
highest energy data are consistent with overlapping results from TRIUMF and
LAMPF. In general, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute SM95 partial wave
analysis solution describes our data well, but the older Karlsruhe-Helsinki PWA
solution KH80 does not.
