First measurement of the total proton-proton cross-section at the LHC energy of \chem{\sqrt{s} = 7\,TeV}

Abstract

TOTEM has measured the differential cross-section for elastic proton-proton scattering at the LHC energy of √s = 7TeV analyzing data from a short run with dedicated large Beta∗ optics. A single exponential fit with B = 20.1GeV**−2 (all errors are given in the text) describes the lowest range of the squared four-momentum transfer |t| from 0.02 to 0.3GeV**2. After the extrapolation to |t| = 0, a total elastic scattering cross-section of 24.8mb was obtained. Applying the Optical Theorem and using the luminosity measurement from CMS, a total proton-proton cross-section of 98.3mb was deduced which is in good agreement with the expectation from the overall fit of previously measured data over a large range of energies. From the total and elastic pp cross-section measurements, an inelastic pp cross-section of (73:5{\\pm}0:6stat +1:8 -1:3 syst) mb was inferred. PACS 13.60.Hb: Total and inclusive cross sections