Measurement of inclusive forward neutron production cross section in proton-proton collisions at $\mathrm{\sqrt{s} = 13~TeV}$ with the LHCf Arm2 detector

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of forward neutron production in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV using the LHCf detector, revealing discrepancies with existing hadronic interaction models across different pseudorapidity regions.

Contribution

First measurement of inclusive forward neutron production cross sections at 13 TeV with detailed comparison to hadronic models.

Findings

None of the models fully agree with the data across all regions.

QGSJET II-04 underestimates total cross sections but has smallest deficit.

SIBYLL 2.3 and EPOS-LHC best match data in specific regions.

Abstract

In this paper, we report the measurement relative to the production of forward neutrons in proton-proton collisions at $\mathrm{\sqrt{s} = 13~TeV}$ obtained using the LHCf Arm2 detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The results for the inclusive differential production cross section are presented as a function of energy in three different pseudorapidity regions: $\eta > 10.76$, $8.99 < \eta < 9.22$ and $8.81 < \eta < 8.99$. The analysis was performed using a data set acquired in June 2015 that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $\mathrm{0.194~nb^{-1}}$. The measurements were compared with the predictions of several hadronic interaction models used to simulate air showers generated by Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays. None of these generators showed good agreement with the data for all pseudorapidity intervals. For $\eta > 10.76$, no model is able to reproduce the observed peak structure at around $\mathrm{5~TeV}$ and all models underestimate the total production cross section: among them, QGSJET II-04 shows the smallest deficit with respect to data for the whole energy range. For $8.99 < \eta < 9.22$ and $8.81 < \eta < 8.99$, the models having the best overall agreement with data are SIBYLL 2.3 and EPOS-LHC, respectively: in particular, in both regions SIBYLL 2.3 is able to reproduce the observed peak structure at around $\mathrm{1.5-2.5~TeV}$.