Photoinduced inclusive cross sections in hadronic collisions at the LHC

We discuss inclusive electromagnetic dissociation processes in proton–proton ( p p ) and proton–nucleus ( p A ) scattering at the LHC where one or both of the protons dissociate. These processes which involve the exchange of a virtual photon in the t –channel are calculable in terms of deep inelastic structure functions (virtual photoabsorption cross sections). For the p A → X A reaction there emerges the possibility of measuring the total photoabsorption cross section on the proton at very high energies.