Determination of the strong coupling constant from ATLAS measurements of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross section at 7 TeV

TL;DR

This paper estimates the strong coupling constant alpha_s(MZ) using ATLAS measurements of inclusive isolated prompt photon production at 7 TeV, providing a novel determination at the LHC energy scale.

Contribution

First-time extraction of alpha_s(MZ) from prompt photon production data at the LHC, combining experimental and theoretical uncertainties at NLO accuracy.

Findings

alpha_s(MZ) = 0.1183 ± 0.0038

First LHC-based determination of alpha_s from prompt photons

Demonstrates feasibility of using prompt photon data for strong coupling measurements

Abstract

We present an estimation of the strong coupling constant alphas(MZ) using, for the first time, the production of prompt photon process in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. ATLAS measurements of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross section at 7 TeV are exploited. Both theoretical and experimental uncertainties are estimated and the strong coupling constant has been determined to be alphas(MZ)= 0.1183 +- 0.0038, to NLO accuracy.