Photoinduced inclusive cross sections in hadronic collisions at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper analyzes electromagnetic dissociation processes in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC, using deep inelastic structure functions to calculate inclusive cross sections and exploring the potential to measure high-energy photoabsorption cross sections.

Contribution

It introduces a method to compute inclusive electromagnetic dissociation cross sections in high-energy collisions using deep inelastic structure functions, enabling new measurements at the LHC.

Findings

Calculations of inclusive electromagnetic dissociation cross sections in $pp$ and $pA$ collisions.

Proposal to measure the total photoabsorption cross section on the proton at high energies.

Theoretical framework based on virtual photon exchange and deep inelastic scattering data.

Abstract

We discuss inclusive electromagnetic dissociation processes in proton--proton ($pp$) and proton--nucleus ($pA$) scattering at the LHC where one or both of the protons dissociate. These processes which involve the exchange of a virtual photon in the $t$--channel are calculable in terms of deep inelastic structure functions (virtual photoabsorption cross sections). For the $pA \to XA$ reaction there emerges the possibility of measuring the total photoabsorption cross section on the proton at very high energies.