Extraction of low-mass diffractive cross section from the discrepancy between ATLAS and TOTEM total cross sections

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to resolve discrepancies in total proton-proton cross section measurements at the LHC by extracting low-mass diffractive cross sections, improving agreement between ATLAS and TOTEM data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to derive low-mass diffraction cross sections from existing measurements, addressing the discrepancy between ATLAS and TOTEM results.

Findings

Better agreement with data-driven estimates of low-mass diffraction

Demonstrates the impact of low-mass diffraction assumptions on total cross section measurements

Provides a new method to reconcile experimental differences at the LHC

Abstract

At the LHC, two experiments - ATLAS and TOTEM - measure the total proton-proton cross section. Unfortunately, a significant discrepancy, persisting at different collision energies, is observed between the values reported by the two groups. This paper considers the hypothesis that this tension is predominantly driven by the assumption about the low-mass diffraction used in one of the measurement methods. It is shown that in such a case it is possible to extract the low-mass diffraction cross section from measurements of ATLAS and TOTEM. The results are compared with other data-driven estimates, showing better agreement than the original assumption.