Inclusive and "exclusive" cross sections in the regime of multiple parton collisions

TL;DR

This paper discusses how measurements of inclusive and exclusive cross sections at the LHC can reveal detailed information about parton correlations within hadrons during multiple parton collisions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the role of inclusive and exclusive cross sections in probing parton correlations in hadron-hadron collisions at high energies.

Findings

Inclusive cross sections are moments of multiplicity distributions.

Exclusive cross sections offer complementary insights into interaction dynamics.

Parton correlations significantly influence both inclusive and exclusive observables.

Abstract

The large luminosity and the increased kinematical domain accessible at the LHC will allow to isolate large numbers of events with multiple parton collisions. Interestingly, the hadron is probed in different points contemporarily in the process, which allows to obtain information on the correlations between partons in the hadron structure. The whole experimentally accessible information on multiple parton collisions consists in the probability distribution of the elementary interactions, while the inclusive cross sections, usually considered in large p_t processes, acquire a precise statistical meaning as moments of the multiplicity distribution. Conversely different and more "exclusive" cross sections become experimentally viable, providing complementary information on the interaction dynamics. The matter is discussed in details in the case of hadron-hadron collisions and the role of parton correlations is outlined both in the inclusive and in the "exclusive" cross sections.