Direct photon production cross sections obtained in high statistics p ̄ p and pp collisions at s =24.3 GeV at the CERN SPS are used in a next-to-leading order QCD analysis. From the cross section difference σ( p ̄ p → γX)−σ(pp → γX) and quark distributions measured in deep inelastic scattering, a determination of the strong coupling constant, α s , is performed via a measurement of Λ (4) MS . This measurement yields a value Λ (4) MS = 210±22 ( stat. )±44 ( syst. ) +105 −36 ( theo. ) MeV. The corresponding value of α s expressed at M 2 Z is α s (M 2 Z )=0.1112 ±0.0016 ( stat. ) ±0.0033 ( syst. ) +0.0077 −0.0034 ( theo. ) .

A study of multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions of inclusive photons measured in pp and p$-$Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon$-$nucleon collision of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV using the ALICE detector in the forward pseudorapidity region $2.3 < \eta_{\rm lab} < 3.9$ is presented. Measurements in p$-$Pb collisions are reported for two beam configurations in which the directions of the proton and lead ion beam were reversed. The pseudorapidity distributions in p$-$Pb collisions are obtained for seven centrality classes which are defined based on different event activity estimators, i.e., the charged-particle multiplicity measured at midrapidity as well as the energy deposited in a calorimeter at beam rapidity. The inclusive photon multiplicity distributions for both pp and p$-$Pb collisions are described by double negative binomial distributions. The pseudorapidity distributions of inclusive photons are compared to those of charged particles at midrapidity in \pp collisions and for different centrality classes in p$-$Pb collisions. The results are compared to predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators. None of the generators considered in this paper reproduces the inclusive photon multiplicity distributions in the reported multiplicity range. The pseudorapidity distributions are, however, better described by the same generators.

Inclusive direct photon invariant cross sections have been measured in both p p and pp collisions at √ s = 24.3 GeV at the CERN SPS, permitting the first measurement of the difference of the p p and pp cross sections. The direct photon cross section in p p collisions has been found to be systematically larger than that in pp collisions, which indicates a significant contribution of the q q annihilation term as predicted by theoretical calculations.

Studying spin-momentum correlations in hadronic collisions offers a glimpse into a three-dimensional picture of proton structure. The transverse single-spin asymmetry for midrapidity isolated direct photons in $p^\uparrow+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV is measured with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Because direct photons in particular are produced from the hard scattering and do not interact via the strong force, this measurement is a clean probe of initial-state spin-momentum correlations inside the proton and is in particular sensitive to gluon interference effects within the proton. This is the first time direct photons have been used as a probe of spin-momentum correlations at RHIC. The uncertainties on the results are a fifty-fold improvement with respect to those of the one prior measurement for the same observable, from the Fermilab E704 experiment. These results constrain gluon spin-momentum correlations in transversely polarized protons.

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.

We present measurements of the cross section and double-helicity asymmetry $A_{LL}$ of direct-photon production in $\vec{p}+\vec{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=510$ GeV. The measurements have been performed at midrapidity ($|\eta|<0.25$) with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. At relativistic energies, direct photons are dominantly produced from the initial quark-gluon hard scattering and do not interact via the strong force at leading order. Therefore, at $\sqrt{s}=510$ GeV, where leading-order-effects dominate, these measurements provide clean and direct access to the gluon helicity in the polarized proton in the gluon-momentum-fraction range $0.02<x<0.08$, with direct sensitivity to the sign of the gluon contribution.

This Letter reports a measurement of the cross section for producing pairs of central prompt isolated photons in proton-antiproton collisions at a total energy of 1.96 TeV using data corresponding to 9.5/fb integrated luminosity collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. The measured differential cross section is compared to three calculations derived from the theory of strong interactions. These include a prediction based on a leading order matrix element calculation merged with parton shower, a next-to-leading order, and a next-to-next-to-leading order calculation. The first and last calculations reproduce most aspects of the data, thus showing the importance of higher-order contributions for understanding the theory of strong interaction and improving measurements of the Higgs boson and searches for new phenomena in diphoton final states.

In this paper, we report the production cross-section of forward photons in the pseudorapidity regions of $\eta\,&gt;\,10.94$ and $8.99\,&gt;\,\eta\,&gt;\,8.81$, measured by the LHCf experiment with proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. The results from the analysis of 0.191 $\mathrm{nb^{-1}}$ of data obtained in June 2015 are compared to the predictions of several hadronic interaction models that are used in air-shower simulations for ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Although none of the models agree perfectly with the data, EPOS-LHC shows the best agreement with the experimental data among the models.

We have measured the production of direct photons, π 0 's, and η's in p p and pp collisions at √ s =53 GeV in the range 2≈ p T ≈6 GeV/ c for the central rapidity region | y | 0.4. No statistically significant difference between pp̄ and pp interactions is observed.

Measurements of differential cross sections are presented for inclusive isolated-photon production in $pp$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV provided by the LHC and using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment. The cross sections are measured as functions of the photon transverse energy in different regions of photon pseudorapidity. The photons are required to be isolated by means of a fixed-cone method with two different cone radii. The dependence of the inclusive-photon production on the photon isolation is investigated by measuring the fiducial cross sections as functions of the isolation-cone radius and the ratios of the differential cross sections with different radii in different regions of photon pseudorapidity. The results presented in this paper constitute an improvement with respect to those published by ATLAS earlier: the measurements are provided for different isolation radii and with a more granular segmentation in photon pseudorapidity that can be exploited in improving the determination of the proton parton distribution functions. These improvements provide a more in-depth test of the theoretical predictions. Next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from JETPHOX and SHERPA and next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from NNLOJET are compared to the measurements, using several parameterisations of the proton parton distribution functions. The measured cross sections are well described by the fixed-order QCD predictions within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties in most of the investigated phase-space region.

The inclusive cross sections for production of prompt photons and π0s by 280 GeV/c protons incident on a liquid hydrogen target, have been measured forpT in the range 4.0 to 6.5 GeV/c and for |xF|<0.45. A quantitative comparison of the prompt photon cross section with next-to-leading order QCD predictions using Duke and Owens structure functions is performed. Phenomenological fits to the π0 and prompt photon cross sections are given.

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The single spin asymmetry for inclusive direct-photon production has been measured using a polarized proton beam of 200 GeV/c with an unpolarized proton target at −0.15 < xf < 0.15 and 2.5 < pt < 3.1 GeV/c at Fermilab. The data on the cross section for pp → γX at 2.5 < pt < 3.8 GeV/c are also provided. The measurement was done using lead-glass calorimeters and photon detectors which surrounded the fiducial area of the calorimeters. Background rejection has been done using these surrounding photon detectors. The cross section obtained is consistent with the results of previous measurements assuming a nuclear dependence of A 1.0 . The single spin asymmetry, A N , for the direct-photon production is consistent with zero within experimental uncertainty.

We have searched for direct photons of low PT (≤1.0 GeV/c) at θc.m.=90° in pp collisions at √s =63 GeV. We used two independent methods: direct detection in NaI crystals and conversion to e+e− pairs. No signal is observed; the photon spectrum is well described by the decay of hadrons. The result is consistent with a direct low-PT photon signal reported at √s =12 GeV, but excludes a rapid growth of soft-photon production with √s .

Single photon production in pp collisions at 30 < √ s < 62 GeV has been measured with liquid-argon-lead calorimeters at the CERN ISR. This process remains approximately constant with increasing √ s . For fixed √ s , the single photon to π 0 ratio increases strongly with increase in p T . The γ π 0 ratio is about 0.2 for p T above 4.5 GeV/c.

The production of direct photons has been measured relative to π 0 's in the rapidity range 2.00 < y < 2.75 in pp collisions at s = 63 GeV at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings. The γ/π 0 ratio increases from ⪅2% at p T = 1.5 GeV/ c to ∼8% at p T = 4.25 GeV/ c , similar to the value observed near 90°. The results indicate no strong enhancement of single-photon production due to quark bremsstrahlung in this kinematic region.

We have measured direct photon production in pp collisions at the CERN intersecting storage rings for c.m. energies 31 < √ s < 63 GeV and transverse momenta up to 9GeV/ c , using segmented lead/liquid-argon calorimeters. The ratio of direct photon to π 0 production is significantly larger than zero, starting at p T ≈ 4 GeV/ c and increasing to values of about 0.4 at 9GeV/ c . No significant √s dependence is seen.

We present data obtained at the ISR, on the determination of the ratio R = γ π 0 at s = 30.6 GeV and we compare the results with our previous measurement at s = 53.2 GeV. The ratio R = γ π 0 integrated over the interval 0.1 ⩽ χ T ⩽ 0.2 is (1.6 ± 0.5) × 10 −2 and we obtain an indication of a universal χ T dependence.

We report the results of an experiment made at the CERN ISR to investigate the possible diret production of single photons in pp collisions at √ s = 53.2 GeV at 90° and in the p t interval 2.3 to 5.7 GeV/ c . The value of the ratio R = n γ / n π 0 is compatible with zero for low p t ⪅ 3 GeV/ c but, in spite of the large error, shows a trend to increase for larger p t .

A measurement of the cross section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<|eta|<1.81 in the transverse energy range 15 < E_T <100 GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 880 nb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Photon candidates are identified by combining information from the calorimeters and from the inner tracker. Residual background in the selected sample is estimated from data based on the observed distribution of the transverse isolation energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate. The results are compared to predictions from next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations.

Cross sections for inclusive direct photon production in π−p, π+p, and pp collisions at 300 GeV/c are measured at transverse momenta pT up to 7 GeV/c (xT=0.6). For π−p→γX also the rapidity distribution is presented. The cross-section ratio σ(π−p→γX)/σ(π+p→γX) is found to be 1 at pT=4 GeV/c and rises with increasing pT. This observation signals the occurrence of valence-quark–antiquark annihilation. The results are in good agreement with QCD predictions.

Measurements of the production of high transverse momentum direct photons by a 515 GeV/c piminus beam and 530 and 800 GeV/c proton beams in interactions with beryllium and hydrogen targets are presented. The data span the kinematic ranges of 3.5 < p_T < 12 GeV/c in transverse momentum and 1.5 units in rapidity. The inclusive direct-photon cross sections are compared with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations and expectations based on a phenomenological parton-k_T model.

We report on an experiment in which the SLAC 40-in. hybrid facility was exposed to an 8.8-GeV/c antiproton beam. Using external detectors we have identified a large fraction of nonannihilation events and thus obtained a clean sample of annihilation data. Using proton interactions taken in the same detector at the same energy we have made a detailed study of (p¯p−pp) differences and explored their relationship to p¯p annihilations.

A measurement of the differential cross section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36 inverse picobarns recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity range |eta|<2.5 and the transverse energy range 25 < ET < 400 GeV, corresponding to the kinematic region 0.007 < xT < 0.114. Photon candidates are identified with two complementary methods, one based on photon conversions in the silicon tracker and the other on isolated energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter. The measured cross section is presented as a function of ET in four pseudorapidity regions. The next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations are consistent with the measured cross section.

The differential cross section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons has been measured as a function of the photon transverse energy E_T-gamma in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV using data recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.9 inverse picobarns. Photons are required to have a pseudorapidity |eta_gamma|<1.45 and E_T-gamma > 21 GeV, covering the kinematic region 0.006 < x_T < 0.086. The measured cross section is found to be in agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations.

A comparison of the differential cross sections for the processes Z/gamma* + jets and photon (gamma) + jets is presented. The measurements are based on data collected with the CMS detector at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. The differential cross sections and their ratios are presented as functions of pt. The measurements are also shown as functions of the jet multiplicity. Differential cross sections are obtained as functions of the ratio of the Z/gamma* pt to the sum of all jet transverse momenta and of the ratio of the Z/gamma* pt to the leading jet transverse momentum. The data are corrected for detector effects and are compared to simulations based on several QCD calculations.