In a special run of the LHC with $$\beta ^{\star } = 2.5$$
β
⋆
=
2.5
km, proton–proton elastic-scattering events were recorded at $$\sqrt{s} = 13$$
s
=
13
TeV with an integrated luminosity of $$340~\upmu {\text {b}}^{-1}$$
340
μ
b
-
1
using the ALFA subdetector of ATLAS in 2016. The elastic cross section was measured differentially in the Mandelstam t variable in the range from $$-t = 2.5 \cdot 10^{-4}$$
-
t
=
2.5
·
10
-
4
GeV$$^{2}$$
2
to $$-t = 0.46$$
-
t
=
0.46
GeV$$^{2}$$
2
using 6.9 million elastic-scattering candidates. This paper presents measurements of the total cross section $$\sigma _{\text {tot}}$$
σ
tot
, parameters of the nuclear slope, and the $$\rho $$
ρ
-parameter defined as the ratio of the real part to the imaginary part of the elastic-scattering amplitude in the limit $$t \rightarrow 0$$
t
→
0
. These parameters are determined from a fit to the differential elastic cross section using the optical theorem and different parameterizations of the t-dependence. The results for $$\sigma _{\text {tot}}$$
σ
tot
and $$\rho $$
ρ
are $$\begin{aligned} \sigma _{\text {tot}}(pp\rightarrow X) = 104.7 \pm 1.1 \; \text{ mb },\quad \rho = 0.098 \pm 0.011 . \end{aligned}$$
σ
tot
(
p
p
→
X
)
=
104.7
±
1.1
mb
,
ρ
=
0.098
±
0.011
.
The uncertainty in $$\sigma _{\text {tot}}$$
σ
tot
is dominated by the luminosity measurement, and in $$\rho $$
ρ
by imperfect knowledge of the detector alignment and by modelling of the nuclear amplitude.
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