Determining the inelastic proton-proton cross section at the Large Hadron Collider using minimum bias events

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new method to measure the non-diffractive inelastic proton-proton cross section at 14TeV LHC energy by counting collision events, especially suitable for early low-luminosity runs.

Contribution

It introduces a novel counting-based approach to determine the inelastic cross section, focusing on the non-diffractive component at the LHC.

Findings

Method is promising for initial low-luminosity phase

Measurement accuracy depends mainly on luminosity knowledge

Preliminary results indicate feasibility of the approach

Abstract

Described in this paper is a new method for determining the non-diffractive part of the inelastic proton-proton cross section, at the LHC centre of mass energy of 14TeV. The method is based on counting the number of inelastic proton-proton interactions in the collision regions. According to preliminary investigation, this measurement will be best suited for the initial low luminosity phase of the LHC. The dominant uncertainty on this measurement comes from knowledge of the proton-proton luminosity.