Measurement of zero degree inclusive photon energy spectra for s=900GeV proton–proton collisions at LHC

Abstract The inclusive photon energy spectra measured by the Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment in the very forward region of LHC proton–proton collisions at s = 900 GeV are reported. The results from the analysis of 0.30 nb −1 of data collected in May 2010 in the two pseudorapidity regions of η > 10.15 and 8.77 η 9.46 are compared with the predictions of the hadronic interaction models DPMJET 3.04, EPOS 1.99, PYTHIA 8.145, QGSJET II-03 and SIBYLL 2.1, which are widely used in ultra-high energy cosmic ray experiments. EPOS 1.99 and SIBYLL 2.1 show a reasonable agreement with the spectral shape of the experimental data, whereas they predict lower cross-sections than the data. The other models, DPMJET 3.04, QGSJET II-03 and PYTHIA 8.145, are in good agreement with the data below 300 GeV but predict harder energy spectra than the data above 300 GeV. The results of these comparisons exhibited features similar to those for the previously reported data for s = 7 TeV collisions.