Forward proton physics at LHC

TL;DR

This paper reviews the study of diffractive phenomena in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, focusing on forward proton tagging as a tool to understand non-perturbative QCD and photon-induced processes.

Contribution

It discusses recent experimental results and potential implications of forward proton tagging for exploring strong and electroweak interactions at the LHC.

Findings

Diffractive processes are significant in pp collisions at LHC.

Forward proton tagging enables study of non-perturbative QCD.

Photon-photon interactions can be measured using proton tagging.

Abstract

Diffractive phenomena constitute a large fraction of interactions occurring in pp collisions at LHC. Because of the non-perturbative nature, their present understanding is still relatively poor and uncertain. One of the methods to study these processes is forward proton tagging. I will discuss the mechanism of diffractive processes, recent results, and potential implications. The proton tagging method can also be used for measurements of photon-induced processes, in particular, the photon-photon interactions. I will present the physics behind these processes, the experimental status and the lessons we can learn for the strong interactions and for the electroweak sector.