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.