# Measurement of exclusive $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow \ell^+\ell^-$ production in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract : This Letter reports a measurement of the exclusive $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow \ell^+\ell^- (\ell=e, \mu)$ cross-section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, based on an integrated luminosity of $4.6$ fb$^{-1}$. For the electron or muon pairs satisfying exclusive selection criteria, a fit to the dilepton acoplanarity distribution is used to extract the fiducial cross-sections. The cross-section in the electron channel is determined to be $\sigma_{\gamma\gamma\rightarrow e^+e^-}^{\mathrm{excl.}} = 0.428 \pm 0.035 (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 0.018 (\mathrm{syst.})$ pb for a phase-space region with invariant mass of the electron pairs greater than 24 GeV, in which both electrons have transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}>12$ GeV and pseudorapidity $|\eta|<2.4$. For muon pairs with invariant mass greater than 20 GeV, muon transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}>10$ GeV and pseudorapidity $|\eta|<2.4$, the cross-section is determined to be $\sigma_{\gamma\gamma\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^- }^{\mathrm{excl.}} = 0.628 \pm 0.032 (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 0.021 (\mathrm{syst.})$ pb. When proton absorptive effects due to the finite size of the proton are taken into account in the theory calculation, the measured cross-sections are found to be consistent with the theory prediction.
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http://hal.in2p3.fr/in2p3-01169510
Contributor : Claudine Bombar <>
Submitted on : Monday, June 29, 2015 - 3:37:04 PM
Last modification on : Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 10:58:34 AM

### Citation

G. Aad, Z. Barnovska, N. Berger, M. Delmastro, L. Di Ciaccio, et al.. Measurement of exclusive $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow \ell^+\ell^-$ production in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV with the ATLAS detector. Physics Letters B, Elsevier, 2015, 749, pp.242-261. ⟨10.1016/j.physletb.2015.07.069⟩. ⟨in2p3-01169510⟩

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