Measurement of inelastic, single- and double-diffraction cross sections in proton–proton collisions at the LHC with ALICE

Measurements of cross sections of inelastic and diffractive processes in proton–proton collisions at LHC energies were carried out with the ALICE detector. The fractions of diffractive processes in inelastic collisions were determined from a study of gaps in charged particle pseudorapidity distributions: for single diffraction (diffractive mass MX<200 GeV/c2) $$\sigma_{\mathrm{SD}}/\sigma_{\mathrm {INEL}} = 0.21 \pm 0.03, 0.20^{+0.07}_{-0.08}$$, and $$0.20^{+0.04}_{-0.07}$$, respectively at centre-of-mass energies $$\sqrt{s} = 0.9, 2.76\mbox{, and }7~\mbox{TeV}$$; for double diffraction (for a pseudorapidity gap Δη>3) σDD/σINEL=0.11±0.03,0.12±0.05, and $$0.12^{+0.05}_{-0.04}$$, respectively at $$\sqrt{s} = 0.9, …