Measurement of the Total Photon Proton Cross Section and its Decomposition at 200~GeV Centre of Mass Energy

TL;DR

This paper reports a new measurement of the total photon-proton cross section at 200 GeV, including its decomposition into elastic, diffractive, and non-diffractive components, using data from the H1 detector at HERA.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed decomposition of the total photon-proton cross section at this energy, based on experimental data and analysis of different scattering processes.

Findings

Total cross section measured as 165 ± 2 ± 11 μb.

Decomposition into elastic, single diffractive, and non-diffractive parts achieved.

Analysis supports assumptions on double diffractive dissociation contributions.

Abstract

We present a new measurement of the total photoproduction cross section performed with the H1 detector at HERA. For an average centre of mass energy of 200~GeV a value of $\sigma_{tot}^{\gamma{p}}= 165\pm2\pm11\mu$b has been obtained. A detailed analysis of the data in adequate kinematic regions enabled a decomposition of the total cross section in its elastic, single diffractive dissociation and remaining non-diffractive parts, based on safe assumptions on the double diffractive dissociation contribution.