Abstract
The forward η mesons production has been observed by the Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment in proton-proton collision at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 13 TeV. This paper presents the measurement of the inclusive production rate of η in pT < 1.1 GeV/c, expressed as a function of the Feynman-x variable. These results are compared with the predictions of several hadronic interaction models commonly used for the modelling of the air showers produced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. This is both the first measurement of η mesons from LHCf and the first time a particle containing strange quarks has been observed in the forward region for high-energy collisions. These results will provide a powerful constraint on hadronic interaction models for the purpose of improving the understanding of the processes underlying the air showers produced in the Earth’s atmosphere by ultra-energetic cosmic rays.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the CERN staff and the ATLAS collaboration for their essential contributions to the successful operation of LHCf. We are grateful to S. Ostapchenko for useful comments about QGSJET II-04 generator and to the developers of CRMC interface tool for its implementation. This work was supported by several institutions in Japan and in Italy: in Japan, by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (Grant Numbers JP26247037, JP23340076) and the joint research program of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR), University of Tokyo; in Italy, by Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and by the University of Catania (Grant Numbers UNICT 2020-22 Linea 2). This work took advantage of computer resources supplied by ICRR (University of Tokyo), CERN and CNAF (INFN).
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Adriani, O., Berti, E., Betti, P. et al. Measurement of the forward η meson production rate in p-p collisions at \( \sqrt{\textrm{s}} \) = 13 TeV with the LHCf-Arm2 detector. J. High Energ. Phys. 2023, 169 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2023)169
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2023)169