The CMS-TOTEM Precision Proton Spectrometer and first physics results

Proton tagged photon-photon and gluon-gluon interactions represent a unique way to study the Standard Model, and to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model, in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The CT-PPS project began operating near-beam detectors housed in Roman Pots during 2016, to detect the forward scattered protons in these processes. The 2016 data was used to develop techniques for alignment and beam optics corrections, and applied to an analysis of $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow\ell^{+}\ell^{-}$ production. This resulted in the first observation of this process with tagged protons in the mass range $m(\ell^{+}\ell^{-})>$110~GeV. Several upgrades of the detectors since 2016 provide enhanced sensitivity for new physics searches and Standard Model measurements.