Photoinduced inclusive cross sections in hadronic collisions at the LHC

Abstract

We discuss inclusive electromagnetic dissociation processes in proton–proton ($pp$) and proton–nucleus ($pA$) scattering at the LHC where one or both of the protons dissociate. These processes which involve the exchange of a virtual photon in the $t$–channel are calculable in terms of deep inelastic structure functions (virtual photoabsorption cross sections). For the $pA\to XA$ reaction there emerges the possibility of measuring the total photoabsorption cross section on the proton at very high energies.