The cross-section for inelastic proton-proton collisions, with at least one prompt long-lived charged particle of transverse momentum $p_{\rm T}>0.2$ GeV/$c$ in the pseudorapidity range $2.0<\eta<4.5$, is measured by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV. The cross-section in this kinematic range is determined to be $\sigma_{\rm inel}^{\rm acc} = 55.0 \pm 2.4$ mb within the spectrometer acceptance with an experimental uncertainty that is dominated by systematic contributions. Extrapolation to the full phase space, using PYTHIA 6, yields $\sigma_{\rm inel} = 66.9 \pm 2.9 \pm 4.4$ mb, where the first uncertainty is experimental and the second is due to the extrapolation.
The cross-section for inelastic proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13\,TeV is measured with the LHCb detector. The fiducial cross-section for inelastic interactions producing at least one prompt long-lived charged particle with momentum $p>2$\,GeV/$c$ in the pseudorapidity range $2<\eta<5$ is determined to be $\sigma_{\rm acc}= 62.2 \pm 0.2 \pm 2.5$\,mb. The first uncertainty is the intrinsic systematic uncertainty of the measurement, the second is due to the uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The statistical uncertainty is negligible. Extrapolation to full phase space yields the total inelastic proton-proton cross-section $\sigma_{\rm inel}= 75.4 \pm 3.0 \pm 4.5$\,mb, where the first uncertainty is experimental and the second due to the extrapolation. An updated value of the inelastic cross-section at a centre-of-mass energy of 7\,TeV is also reported.
The energy flow created in pp collisions at is studied within the pseudorapidity range 1.9<η<4.9 with data collected by the LHCb experiment. The measurements are performed for inclusive minimum-bias interactions, hard scattering processes and events with an enhanced or suppressed diffractive contribution. The results are compared to predictions given by Pythia-based and cosmic-ray event generators, which provide different models of soft hadronic interactions.
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