Diffractive dissociation of protons in 7 TeV collisions at the ATLAS detector

A data sample with integrated luminosity $7.1 \mu b^{-1}$ of pp collisions was collected with a minimum bias trigger at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. It is analysed to identify large pseudorapidity gaps. The inelastic cross section is presented differentially in $\Delta\eta^F$, the largest continuous region of pseudorapidity which extends from the edge of the detector at $\pm$ 4.9 and which contains no final state particles above a threshold $p_{\rm T}^{\rm cut}$ . The measurement is presented in the region $0 < \Delta\eta^F < 8$ for $200 < p_{\rm T}^{\rm cut} < 800$ MeV. Diffractive topologies are isolated at large gap sizes. The distribution is interpreted using triple Regge models of diffractive scattering, and the dependence of the inelastic cross section on the kinematics of diffraction is studied and compared with other LHC measurements.