Early LHC Underlying Event Data - Findings and Surprises

Abstract

The CDF PYTHIA 6.2 Tune DW predictions of the LHC underlying event (UE) data at 900 GeV and 7 TeV are examined in detail. The behavior of the UE at the LHC is roughly what we expected. The new LHC PYTHIA 6.4 Tune Z1 does an even better job describing the UE data at 900 GeV and 7 TeV. However, the modeling of "min-bias" at the LHC (i.e. the overall inelastic cross section) is a very different story. No model describes all the features of "min-bias" collisions at 900 GeV and 7 TeV.