The cross-section for prompt antiproton production in collisions of protons with an energy of $6.5$ TeV incident on helium nuclei at rest is measured with the LHCb experiment from a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $0.5\,nb^{-1}$. The target is provided by injecting helium gas into the LHC beam line at the LHCb interaction point. The reported results, covering antiproton momenta between $12$ and $110\,\mathrm{GeV/}c$, represent the first direct determination of the antiproton production cross-section in ${\rm p He}$ collisions, and impact the interpretation of recent results on antiproton cosmic rays from space-borne experiments.
Double-differential cross-section in antiproton momentum and transverse momentum for antiproton production in collisions of 6.5 TeV protons on He nuclei at rest. The antiproton momentum is defined in the laboratory frame. Results are averaged over the given kinematic range of each bin. The uncertainty is split into an uncertainty delta_uncorr, uncorrelated among the kinematic bins, and an uncertainty delta_corr, fully correlated among the kinematic bins. For both uncertainties, the systematic uncertainty, dominant for most bins, and the statistical uncertainty, are added in quadrature. The average value within each bin is also reported for the antiproton momentum, the transverse momentum, and x-Feynman xF=2 p_Z*/SQRT(S), where p_Z* is the longitudinal antiproton momentum in the center-of-mass system and SQRT(S) the nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy. These average values are obtained from simulation (based on EPOS LHC), to avoid biases from reconstruction effects and given the good agreement with data observed for the simulated kinematic spectra.
Double-differential cross-section in antiproton momentum and transverse momentum for antiproton production in collisions of 6.5 TeV protons on He nuclei at rest. The antiproton momentum is defined in the laboratory frame. Results are averaged over the given kinematic range of each bin. The uncertainty is split into an uncertainty delta_uncorr, uncorrelated among the kinematic bins, and an uncertainty delta_corr, fully correlated among the kinematic bins. For both uncertainties, the systematic uncertainty, dominant for most bins, and the statistical uncertainty, are added in quadrature. The average value within each bin is also reported for the antiproton momentum, the transverse momentum, and x-Feynman xF=2 p_Z*/SQRT(S), where p_Z* is the longitudinal antiproton momentum in the center-of-mass system and SQRT(S) the nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy. These average values are obtained from simulation (based on EPOS LHC), to avoid biases from reconstruction effects and given the good agreement with data observed for the simulated kinematic spectra.
Differential cross sections of charged particles in inelastic pp collisions as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ have been measured at $\sqrt{s}=$ 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV at the LHC. The $p_{\rm T}$ spectra are compared to NLO-pQCD calculations. Though the differential cross section for an individual $\sqrt{s}$ cannot be described by NLO-pQCD, the relative increase of cross section with $\sqrt{s}$ is in agreement with NLO-pQCD. Based on these measurements and observations, procedures are discussed to construct pp reference spectra at $\sqrt{s} =$ 2.76 and 5.02 TeV up to $p_{\rm T}$ = 50 GeV/$c$ as required for the calculation of the nuclear modification factor in nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus collisions.
The normalized differential primary charged particle cross sections measured at 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV centre-of- mass energies. Additional systematic error for 0.9 TeV data: +5.1% -4.0%. Additional systematic error for 2.76 TeV data: +1.9% -1.9%. Additional systematic error for 7.0 TeV data: +3.6% -3.6%.
The ratios of differential cross sections of charged particles at different collisions energies.
The constructed reference P-P spectra for comparison with PB-PB and p-PB spectra.
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