Measurement of the total cross section from elastic scattering in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

The ATLAS collaboration Aaboud, Morad ; Aad, Georges ; Abbott, Brad ; et al.
Phys.Lett.B 761 (2016) 158-178, 2016.
Inspire Record 1477585 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.73997

A measurement of the total $pp$ cross section at the LHC at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV is presented. An integrated luminosity of $500$ $\mu$b$^{-1}$ was accumulated in a special run with high-$\beta^{\star}$ beam optics to measure the differential elastic cross section as a function of the Mandelstam momentum transfer variable $t$. The measurement is performed with the ALFA sub-detector of ATLAS. Using a fit to the differential elastic cross section in the $-t$ range from $0.014$ GeV$^2$ to $0.1$ GeV$^2$ to extrapolate $t\rightarrow 0$, the total cross section, $\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(pp\rightarrow X)$, is measured via the optical theorem to be: $\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(pp\rightarrow X) = {96.07} \; \pm 0.18 \; ({{stat.}}) \pm 0.85 \; ({{exp.}}) \pm 0.31 \; ({extr.}) \; {mb} \;,$ where the first error is statistical, the second accounts for all experimental systematic uncertainties and the last is related to uncertainties in the extrapolation $t\rightarrow 0$. In addition, the slope of the exponential function describing the elastic cross section at small $t$ is determined to be $B = 19.74 \pm 0.05 \; ({{stat.}}) \pm 0.23 \; ({{syst.}}) \; {GeV}^{-2}$.

6 data tables

The measured total cross section, the first systematic error accounts for all experimental uncertainties and the second error for the extrapolation t-->0.

The nuclear slope of the differential eslastic cross section at small |t|, the first systematic error accounts for all experimental uncertainties and the second error for the extrapolation t-->0.

The total elastic cross section and the observed elastic cross section within the fiducial volume.

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Evidence for Non-Exponential Elastic Proton-Proton Differential Cross-Section at Low |t| and sqrt(s) = 8 TeV by TOTEM

The TOTEM collaboration Antchev, G. ; Aspell, P. ; Atanassov, I. ; et al.
Nucl.Phys.B 899 (2015) 527-546, 2015.
Inspire Record 1356731 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.73431

The TOTEM experiment has made a precise measurement of the elastic proton-proton differential cross-section at the centre-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 8 TeV based on a high-statistics data sample obtained with the beta* = 90 optics. Both the statistical and systematic uncertainties remain below 1%, except for the t-independent contribution from the overall normalisation. This unprecedented precision allows to exclude a purely exponential differential cross-section in the range of four-momentum transfer squared 0.027 < |t| < 0.2 GeV^2 with a significance greater than 7 sigma. Two extended parametrisations, with quadratic and cubic polynomials in the exponent, are shown to be well compatible with the data. Using them for the differential cross-section extrapolation to t = 0, and further applying the optical theorem, yields total cross-section estimates of (101.5 +- 2.1) mb and (101.9 +- 2.1) mb, respectively, in agreement with previous TOTEM measurements.

1 data table

The elastic differential cross-section as determined in this analysis using the ''optimised'' binning.