Evidence for light-by-light scattering in heavy-ion collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The ATLAS collaboration Aaboud, Morad ; Aad, Georges ; Abbott, Brad ; et al.
Nature Phys. 13 (2017) 852-858, 2017.
Inspire Record 1512305 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.77761

Light-by-light scattering ($\gamma\gamma\rightarrow\gamma\gamma$) is a quantum-mechanical process that is forbidden in the classical theory of electrodynamics. This reaction is accessible at the Large Hadron Collider thanks to the large electromagnetic field strengths generated by ultra-relativistic colliding lead (Pb) ions. Using 480 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV by the ATLAS detector, the ATLAS Collaboration reports evidence for the $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow\gamma\gamma$ reaction. A total of 13 candidate events are observed with an expected background of 2.6$\pm$0.7 events. After background subtraction and analysis corrections, the fiducial cross section of the process $\textrm{Pb+Pb}\,(\gamma\gamma)\rightarrow \textrm{Pb}^{(\ast)}\textrm{+}\textrm{Pb}^{(\ast)}\,\gamma\gamma$, for photon transverse energy $E_{\mathrm{T}}>$3 GeV, photon absolute pseudorapidity $|\eta|<$2.4, diphoton invariant mass greater than 6 GeV, diphoton transverse momentum lower than 2 GeV and diphoton acoplanarity below 0.01, is measured to be 70 $\pm$ 24 (stat.) $\pm$ 17 (syst.) nb, which is in agreement with Standard Model predictions.

3 data tables

Detector-level diphoton invariant mass distribution

Detector-level diphoton acoplanarity distribution

The measured total fiducial cross section


Two-particle Bose-Einstein correlations in $pp$ collisions at $\mathbf {\sqrt{s} =}$ 0.9 and 7 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector

The ATLAS collaboration Aad, Georges ; Abbott, Brad ; Abdallah, Jalal ; et al.
Eur.Phys.J.C 75 (2015) 466, 2015.
Inspire Record 1346844 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.70016

The paper presents studies of Bose-Einstein Correlations (BEC) for pairs of like-sign charged particles measured in the kinematic range $p_{\rm T}>$ 100 MeV and $|\eta|<$ 2.5 in proton--proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 and 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The integrated luminosities are approximately 7 $\mu$b$^{-1}$, 190 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ and 12.4 nb$^{-1}$ for 0.9 TeV, 7 TeV minimum-bias and 7 TeV high-multiplicity data samples, respectively. The multiplicity dependence of the BEC parameters characterizing the correlation strength and the correlation source size are investigated for charged-particle multiplicities of up to 240. A saturation effect in the multiplicity dependence of the correlation source size is observed using the high-multiplicity 7 TeV data sample. The dependence of the BEC parameters on the average transverse momentum of the particle pair is also investigated.

24 data tables

Systematic uncertainties on $\lambda$ and $R$ for the exponential fit of the two-particle double-ratio correlation function $R_{2}(Q)$ in the full kinematic region at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$ and $7\ TeV$ for minimum-bias and high-multiplicity (HM) events, $n_{ch} \ge 2$ and $n_{ch} \ge 150$, respectively.

Results of fitting the multiplicity, $n_{ch}$, dependence of the BEC parameters $R$ and $\lambda$ with different functional forms for $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$ and $7\ TeV$. The $n_{ch}$ fit of $R(n_{ch})$ is applied to $7\ TeV$ minimum-bias events at $n_{ch} \le 55$ and to $0.9\ TeV$ minimum-bias events. The constant fit of $R(n_{ch} )$ is applied to $7\ TeV$ minimum-bias events for $n_{ch} > 55$ and to $7\ TeV$ high-multiplicity events. The exponential fit of $\lambda(n_{ch})$ is applied to $7\ TeV$ minimum-bias and high-multiplicity events.The error represent the quadratic sum of the statistical and systematic uncertainties.

Results of fitting the transverse momentum of the pair, $k_{T}$, dependence of the BEC parameters $R$ and $\lambda$ with the exponential fitting function for $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$ and $7\ TeV$. The error represent the quadratic sum of the statistical and systematic uncertainties.

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