CERN Accelerating science

ATLAS Note
Report number	ATL-PHYS-PROC-2024-113
Title	Overview of the latest ATLAS and ATLAS-AFP photoproduction results
Author(s)	Sopczak, Andre (Czech Technical University in Prague (CZ))
Corporate Author(s)	The ATLAS collaboration
Collaboration	ATLAS Collaboration
Publication	2024
Imprint	04 Dec 2024
Number of pages	8
In:	Diffraction and Low-x 2024, Trabia, Palermo, Italy, 8 - 14 Sep 2024
Subject category	Particle Physics - Experiment
Accelerator/Facility, Experiment	CERN LHC ; ATLAS
Free keywords	photoproduction ; ATLAS-AFP ; EWEAK ; QCD ; EXOTICS ; HEAVYIONS
Abstract	A key focus of the physics program at the LHC is the study of head-on proton-proton collisions. However, an important class of physics can be studied for cases where the protons narrowly miss one another and remain intact. In such cases, the electromagnetic fields surrounding the protons can interact producing high-energy photon-photon collisions. Alternatively, interactions mediated by the strong force can also result in intact forward scattered protons, providing probes of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In order to aid identification and provide unique information about these rare interactions, instrumentation to detect and measure protons scattered through very small angles is installed in the beam pipe far downstream of the interaction point. We review photoproduction results from data collected with the ATLAS Forward Proton (AFP) and Absolute Luminosity For ATLAS (ALFA) detectors in proton-proton and heavy ion collisions.