Probing the proton structure with minimum bias and low-pt dimuon events at hadron colliders

Abstract

This paper presents two methods for probing the proton structure and the number of partonic interactions in proton-proton collisions using dimuon production and minimum bias events. At the LHC these targeted measurements can provide information on the average number of partonic scatters in different event classes, their dependence on the partonic momentum fraction, x, and potentially partonic flavour. Within a simple mostly geometric model of multiparton interactions as quasi-independent scatters, the measurements can be used to make inference about the proton-proton overlap dependence on impact parameter and its partonic-x dependence.