Measurement of the production cross section of pairs of isolated photons in $pp$ collisions at 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports a precise measurement of prompt photon-pair production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector, comparing results with advanced theoretical models to test QCD predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of NNLO and multi-leg merged calculations with experimental data for diphoton production at 13 TeV.

Findings

NNLO and multi-leg merged calculations agree with data within uncertainties.

Lower-order calculations significantly deviate from measurements.

Resummed predictions accurately describe low transverse-momentum region.

Abstract

A measurement of prompt photon-pair production in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV is presented. The data were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. Events with two photons in the well-instrumented region of the detector are selected. The photons are required to be isolated and have a transverse momentum of $p_\mathrm{T,\gamma_{1(2)}} > 40(30)$ GeV for the leading (sub-leading) photon. The differential cross sections as functions of several observables for the diphoton system are measured and compared with theoretical predictions from state-of-the-art Monte Carlo and fixed-order calculations. The QCD predictions from next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations and multi-leg merged calculations are able to describe the measured integrated and differential cross sections within uncertainties, whereas lower-order calculations show significant deviations, demonstrating that higher-order perturbative QCD corrections are crucial for this process. The resummed predictions with parton showers additionally provide an excellent description of the low transverse-momentum regime of the diphoton system.