Contributions from ultraperipheral collisions to the forward rapidity gap distribution in pPb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at sNN=8.16 TeV

Abstract

In this Letter, we consider strong and electromagnetic (ultraperipheral) mechanisms in proton-nucleus coherent diffraction at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We explicitly demonstrate the dominance of the latter and explain the CMS data on the forward rapidity gap distribution in $p\mathrm{Pb}$ collisions at $\sqrt{{s}_{NN}}=8.16$ TeV. In particular, we provide simple estimates, which give a good, semiquantitative description of both magnitude and shape of the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{\ensuremath{\eta}}^{F}$ distribution in the Pomeron-proton topology. We also make predictions for the proton-oxygen run.