Diffraction and Forward Physics in ATLAS: results and perspectives

Abstract

The present and future potential of ATLAS for diffraction and forward physics is presented. As recent results the rapidity gap cross section and elastic and total pp cross sections are reported. The upgrade project AFP is presented and it is shown how it will complement the ALFA acceptance for diffractive physics in measurements taken with β*=90 m LHC beam optics. Moreover, the AFP detector will guarantee good acceptance on diffractive events also during normal running conditions allowing to improve the ATLAS detector performances. If in addition, a high luminosity program will be feasible, AFP might be fundamental for potential discoveries with extra dimensions being one example.