Measurement of light-by-light scattering and search for axion-like particles with 2.2 nb^−1 of Pb+Pb data with the ATLAS detector
Aad, Georges; Abbott, Brad; Abbott, Dale C.; Abed Abud, Adam; Abeling, Kira; Abhayasinghe, Deshan Kavishka; Abidi, Syed Haider; AbouZeid, Ossama Sherif Alexander; Abraham, Nadine L.; Abramowicz, Halina; Bjørke, Kristian; Cameron, David Gordon; Bugge, Magnar Kopangen; Catmore, James Richard; Garonne, Vincent; Gramstad, Eirik; Heggelund, Andreas; Hellesund, Simen; Håland, Even Simonsen; Morisbak, Vanja; Oppen, Henrik; Ould-Saada, Farid; Pedersen, Maiken; Read, Alexander Lincoln; Rye, Eli Bæverfjord; Røhne, Ole Myren; Sandaker, Heidi; Vadla, Knut Oddvar Høie; Buanes, Trygve; Djuvsland, Julia Isabell; Eigen, Gerald; Fomin, Nikolai; Latour, Bertrand Pascal Christian; Lee, Graham Richard; Lipniacka, Anna; Stugu, Bjarne Sandvik; Træet, Are Sivertsen; Abreu, Henso; Abulaiti, Yiming; Acharya, Bobby S.; Achkar, Baida; Adam, Lennart; Adam-Bourdarios, Claire; Adamczyk, Leszek; Adamek, Lukas; Adelman, Jareed; Adersberger, Michael; Adigüzel, Aytül; Adorni, Sofia; Adye, Tim; ATLAS, Collaboration
Journal article, Peer reviewed
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Date
2021Metadata
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Abstract
This paper describes a measurement of light-by-light scattering based on Pb+Pb collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 2 of the LHC. The study uses 2.2 nb−1 of integrated luminosity collected in 2015 and 2018 at √sNN = 5.02 TeV. Light-by-light scattering candidates are selected in events with two photons produced exclusively, each with transverse energy EγT > 2.5 GeV, pseudorapidity |ηγ| < 2.37, diphoton invariant mass mγγ > 5 GeV, and with small diphoton transverse momentum and diphoton acoplanarity. The integrated and differential fiducial cross sections are measured and compared with theoretical predictions. The diphoton invariant mass distribution is used to set limits on the production of axion-like particles. This result provides the most stringent limits to date on axion-like particle production for masses in the range 6–100 GeV. Cross sections above 2 to 70 nb are excluded at the 95% CL in that mass interval.