@article{2b3d022cc36b4e2a93ac1d03d57a3ab2,
title = "Evidence for light-by-light scattering in heavy-ion collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC",
abstract = "Light-by-light scattering (γγ → γγ) is a quantum-mechanical process that is forbidden in the classical theory of electrodynamics. This reaction is accessible at the Large Hadron Collider thanks to the large electromagnetic field strengths generated by ultra-relativistic colliding lead ions. Using 480 μ1 of lead-lead collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV by the ATLAS detector, here we report evidence for light-by-light scattering. A total of 13 candidate events were observed with an expected background of 2.6 ± 0.7 events. After background subtraction and analysis corrections, the fiducial cross-section of the process Pb + Pb (γγ) → Pb(∗) + Pb(∗) γγ,for photon transverse energy ET > 3GeV, photon absolute pseudorapidity |η| <2.4, diphoton invariant mass greater than 6GeV, diphoton transverse momentum lower than 2GeV and diphoton acoplanarity below 0.01, is measured to be 70 ± 24 (stat.) ±17 (syst.) nb, which is in agreement with the standard model predictions.",
keywords = "DELBRUCK SCATTERING, PERIPHERAL COLLISIONS, PAIR PRODUCTION, GAMMA-GAMMA, PHYSICS",
author = "{The ATLAS collaboration} and M. Aaboud and G. Aad and B. Abbott and J. Abdallah and O. Abdinov and B. Abeloos and Abidi, {S. H.} and AbouZeid, {O. S.} and Abraham, {N. L.} and H. Abramowicz and H. Abreu and R. Abreu and Y. Abulaiti and Acharya, {B. S.} and S. Adachi and L. Adamczyk and J. Adelman and M. Adersberger and T. Adye and Affolder, {A. A.} and T. Agatonovic-Jovin and C. Agheorghiesei and Aguilar-Saavedra, {J. A.} and Ahlen, {S. P.} and F. Ahmadov and G. Aielli and S. Akatsuka and H. Akerstedt and {\AA}kesson, {T. P.A.} and Akimov, {A. V.} and Alberghi, {G. L.} and J. Albert and {Alconada Verzini}, {M. J.} and M. Aleksa and Aleksandrov, {I. N.} and C. Alexa and G. Alexander and T. Alexopoulos and M. Alhroob and B. Ali and M. Aliev and Anisenkov, {A. V.} and Baldin, {E. M.} and Bobrovnikov, {V. S.} and Buzykaev, {A. R.} and Kazanin, {V. F.} and T. Kharlamova and Peleganchuk, {S. V.} and Talyshev, {A. A.} and Tikhonov, {Yu A.}",
note = "We thank CERN for the very successful operation of the LHC, as well as the support staff from our institutions without whom ATLAS could not be operated efficiently. We acknowledge the support of ANPCyT, Argentina; YerPhI, Armenia; ARC, Australia; BMWFW and FWF, Austria; ANAS, Azerbaijan; SSTC, Belarus; CNPq and FAPESP, Brazil; NSERC, NRC and CFI, Canada; CERN; CONICYT, Chile; CAS, MOST and NSFC, China; COLCIENCIAS, Colombia; MSMT CR, MPO CR and VSC CR, Czech Republic; DNRF and DNSRC, Denmark; IN2P3-CNRS, CEA-DSM/IRFU, France; GNSF, Georgia; BMBF, HGF and MPG, Germany; GSRT, Greece; RGC, Hong Kong SAR, China; ISF, I-CORE and Benoziyo Center, Israel; INFN, Italy; MEXT and JSPS, Japan; CNRST, Morocco; FOM and NWO, Netherlands; RCN, Norway; MNiSW and NCN, Poland; FCT, Portugal; MNE/IFA, Romania; MES of Russia and NRC KI, Russian Federation; JINR; MESTD, Serbia; MSSR, Slovakia; ARRS and MIZC, Slovenia; DST/NRF, South Africa; MINECO, Spain; SRC and Wallenberg Foundation, Sweden; SERI, SNSF and Cantons of Bern and Geneva, Switzerland; MOST, Taiwan; TAEK, Turkey; STFC, United Kingdom; DOE and NSF, United States of America. In addition, individual groups and members have received support from BCKDF, the Canada Council, CANARIE, CRC, Compute Canada, FQRNT, and the Ontario Innovation Trust, Canada; EPLANET, ERC, ERDF, FP7, Horizon 2020 and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, European Union; Investissements dAvenir Labex and Idex, ANR, Region Auvergne and Fondation Partager le Savoir, France; DFG and AvH Foundation, Germany; Herakleitos, Thales and Aristeia programmes co-financed by EU-ESF and the Greek NSRF; BSF, GIF and Minerva, Israel; BRF, Norway; CERCA Programme Generalitat de Catalunya, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain; the Royal Society and Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom. The crucial computing support from all WLCG partners is acknowledged gratefully, in particular from CERN, the ATLAS Tier-1 facilities at TRIUMF (Canada), NDGF (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), CC-IN2P3 (France), KIT/GridKA (Germany), INFN-CNAF (Italy), NL-T1 (Netherlands), PIC (Spain), ASGC (Taiwan), RAL (UK) and BNL (USA), the Tier-2 facilities worldwide and large non-WLCG resource providers. Major contributors of computing resources are listed in ref. 51.",
year = "2017",
month = sep,
day = "5",
doi = "10.1038/nphys4208",
language = "English",
volume = "13",
pages = "852--858",
journal = "Nature Physics",
issn = "1745-2473",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "9",
}