Jet quenching is the process of color-charged partons losing energy via interactions with quark-gluon plasma droplets created in heavy-ion collisions. The collective expansion of such droplets is well described by viscous hydrodynamics. Similar evidence of collectivity is consistently observed in smaller collision systems, including $pp$ and $p$+Pb collisions. In contrast, while jet quenching is observed in Pb+Pb collisions, no evidence has been found in these small systems to date, raising fundamental questions about the nature of the system created in these collisions. The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider has measured the yield of charged hadrons correlated with reconstructed jets in 0.36 nb$^{-1}$ of $p$+Pb and 3.6 pb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at 5.02 TeV. The yields of charged hadrons with $p_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{ch} >0.5$ GeV near and opposite in azimuth to jets with $p_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{jet} > 30$ or $60$ GeV, and the ratios of these yields between $p$+Pb and $pp$ collisions, $I_{p\mathrm{Pb}}$, are reported. The collision centrality of $p$+Pb events is categorized by the energy deposited by forward neutrons from the struck nucleus. The $I_{p\mathrm{Pb}}$ values are consistent with unity within a few percent for hadrons with $p_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{ch} >4$ GeV at all centralities. These data provide new, strong constraints which preclude almost any parton energy loss in central $p$+Pb collisions.
The per-jet charged particle yield in pPb and pp collisions for hadrons near a $p_{T}^{\textrm{jet}} > 30~\textrm{GeV}$ jet ($\Delta\phi_{\textrm{ch,jet}} < \pi/8$).
The per-jet charged particle yield in pPb and pp collisions for hadrons opposite to a $p_{T}^{\textrm{jet}} > 30~\textrm{GeV}$ jet ($\Delta\phi_{\textrm{ch,jet}} > 7\pi/8$).
The per-jet charged particle yield in pPb and pp collisions for hadrons near a $p_{T}^{\textrm{jet}} > 60~\textrm{GeV}$ jet ($\Delta\phi_{\textrm{ch,jet}} < \pi/8$).
This Letter presents a measurement of the inelastic proton-proton cross section using 60 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ of $13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Inelastic interactions are selected using rings of plastic scintillators in the forward region ($2.07<|\eta|<3.86$) of the detector. A cross section of $68.1\pm 1.4$ mb is measured in the fiducial region $\xi=M_X^2/s>10^{-6}$, where $M_X$ is the larger invariant mass of the two hadronic systems separated by the largest rapidity gap in the event. In this $\xi$ range the scintillators are highly efficient. For diffractive events this corresponds to cases where at least one proton dissociates to a system with $M_X>13$ GeV. The measured cross section is compared with a range of theoretical predictions. When extrapolated to the full phase space, a cross-section of $78.1 \pm 2.9$ mb is measured, consistent with the inelastic cross section increasing with center-of-mass energy.
The measured and extrapolated inelastic cross section. The statistical uncertainty is negligible and is therefore displayed as zero. The first systematic uncertainty is the experimental systematic uncertainty apart from the luminosity, the second is the luminosity uncertainty, and the third is the extrapolation uncertainty.
Forum