The differential cross sections for inclusive neutral pions as a function of transverse and longitudinal momentum in the very forward rapidity region have been measured at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with the Large Hadron Collider forward detector (LHCf) in proton-proton collisions at √ s = 2.76 and 7 TeV and in proton-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies of √ sNN = 5.02 TeV. Such differential cross sections in proton-proton collisions are compatible with the hypotheses of limiting fragmentation and Feynman scaling. Comparing proton-proton with protonlead collisions, we find a sizable suppression of the production of neutral pions in the differential cross sections after subtraction of ultra-peripheral proton-lead collisions. This suppression corre-arXiv:1507.08764v3 [hep-ex]

The Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment is designed to use the LHC to verify the hadronic-interaction models used in cosmic-ray physics. Forward baryon production is one of the crucial points to understand the development of cosmic-ray showers. We report the neutron-energy spectra for LHC √ s = 7 TeV proton-proton collisions with the pseudo-rapidity η ranging from 8.81 to 8.99, from 8.99 to 9.22, and from 10.76 to infinity. The measured energy spectra obtained from the two independent calorimeters of Arm1 and Arm2 show the same characteristic feature before unfolding the difference in the detector responses. We unfolded the measured spectra by using the multidimensional unfolding method based on Bayesian theory, and the unfolded spectra were compared with current hadronic-interaction models. The QGSJET II-03 model predicts a high neutron production rate at the highest pseudo-rapidity range similar to our results and the DPMJET 3.04 model describes our results well at the lower pseudo-rapidity ranges. However no model perfectly explains the experimental results in the whole pseudo-rapidity range. The experimental data indicate the most abundant neutron production rate relative to the photon production, which does not agree with predictions of the models.

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Gd 2 SiO 5 (GSO) scintillator has very excellent radiation resistance, a fast decay time and a large light yield. Because of these features, GSO scintillator is a suitable material for high radiation environment experiments such as those encountered at high energy accelerators. The radiation hardness of GSO has been measured with Carbon ion beams at the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC). During two nights of irradiation the GSO received a total radiation dose of 7 × 10 5 Gy and no decrease of light yield was observed. On the other hand an increase of light yield by 25% was observed. The increase is proportional to the total dose, increasing at a rate of 0.025%/Gy and saturating at around 1 kGy. Recovery to the initial light yield was also observed during the day between two nights of radiation exposure. The recovery was observed to have a slow exponential time constant of approximately 1.5×10 4 seconds together with a faster component. In case of the LHCf experiment, a very forward region experiment on LHC (pseudorapidity η > 8.4), the irradiation dose is expected to be approximately 100 Gy for 10 nb −1 of data taking at √ s = 14TeV. The expected increase in light yield of less than a few percent will not affect the LHCf measurement.

The Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment has been designed to use the LHC to benchmark the hadronic interaction models used in cosmic-ray physics. It measures neutral particles emitted in the very forward region of the LHC p-p or p-N collisions. In this paper, the performances of the LHCf detectors for hadronic showers was studied with MC simulations and beam tests. The detection efficiency for neutrons varies from 70% to 80% above 500 GeV. The energy resolutions are about 40% and the position resolution is 0.1 to 1.3 mm depending on the incident energy for neutrons. The energy scale determined by the MC simulations and the validity of the MC simulations were examined using 350 GeV proton beams at the CERN-SPS.