Measurement of the Inelastic Proton-Proton Cross Section at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector at the LHC


Creative Commons License

Aaboud M., Aad G., Abbott B., Abdallah J., Abdinov O., Abeloos B., ...More

Physical Review Letters, vol.117, no.18, 2016 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 117 Issue: 18
  • Publication Date: 2016
  • Doi Number: 10.1103/physrevlett.117.182002
  • Journal Name: Physical Review Letters
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Ankara University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This Letter presents a measurement of the inelastic proton-proton cross section using 60 μb-1 of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy s of 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Inelastic interactions are selected using rings of plastic scintillators in the forward region (2.07<|η|<3.86) of the detector. A cross section of 68.1±1.4 mb is measured in the fiducial region ξ=MX2/s>10-6, where MX is the larger invariant mass of the two hadronic systems separated by the largest rapidity gap in the event. In this ξ range the scintillators are highly efficient. For diffractive events this corresponds to cases where at least one proton dissociates to a system with MX>13 GeV. The measured cross section is compared with a range of theoretical predictions. When extrapolated to the full phase space, a cross section of 78.1±2.9 mb is measured, consistent with the inelastic cross section increasing with center-of-mass energy.