Experimental prospects for studying high-energy photon-photon and photon-proton interactions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are discussed. Cross sections are calculated for many electroweak and beyond the Standard Model processes. Selection
strategies based on photon interaction tagging techniques are studied. Assuming a typical LHC multipurpose detector, various signals and their irreducible backgrounds are presented after applying acceptance cuts. Prospects are discussed for the Higgs boson search, detection of supersymmetric particles and of anomalous quartic gauge couplings, as well as for the top quark physics.
This paper presents a new C++ framework, DELPHES, performing a fast multipurpose detector response simulation. The simulation includes a tracking system, embedded into a magnetic field, calorimeters and a muon system, and possible very forward detect
ors arranged along the beamline. The framework is interfaced to standard file formats (e.g. Les Houches Event File or HepMC) and outputs observables such as isolated leptons, missing transverse energy and collection of jets which can be used for dedicated analyses. The simulation of the detector response takes into account the effect of magnetic field, the granularity of the calorimeters and subdetector resolutions. A simplified preselection can also be applied on processed events for trigger emulation. Detection of very forward scattered particles relies on the transport in beamlines with the HECTOR software. Finally, the FROG 2D/3D event display is used for visualisation of the collision final states.
