Overview of ATLAS forward proton detectors: status, performance and new physics results

A key focus of the physics program at the LHC is the study of head-on proton-proton collisions. However, an important class of physics can be studied for cases where the protons narrowly miss one another and remain intact. In such cases, the electromagnetic fields surrounding the protons can interact producing high-energy photon-photon collisions. Alternatively, interactions mediated by the strong force can also result in intact forward scattered protons, providing probes of quantum chromodynamics. We will briefly describe the layout and performance of ATLAS Forward Proton Detectors (AFP and ALFA) installed close to the LHC beam pipe far downstream of the interaction point, designed to measure positions and arrival times of protons scattered through very small angles. A novel search for axion-like particles decaying to two photons produced in photon-photon collisions using AFP detector will be highlighted. If available, diffractive measurement with forward protons using the latest ATLAS Run3 data will be also shown.