Eur. Phys. J. C 24, 17-31 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100520200940

Measurement of the hadronic cross-section for the scattering of two virtual photons at LEP

Received: 3 September 2001
Published online: 5 April 2002

Abstract

The interaction of virtual photons is investigated using the reaction e⁺e^- → e⁺e^-, hadrons based on data taken by the OPAL experiment at e⁺e^- centre-of-mass energies √s_ee = 189 − 209 GeV, for W > 5 GeV and at an average Q² of 17.9 GeV². The measured cross-sections are compared to predictions of the Quark Parton Model (QPM), to the Leading Order QCD Monte Carlo model PHOJET, to the NLO prediction for the reaction e⁺e^- → e⁺e^- q͞q and to BFKL calculations. PHOJET, NLO e⁺e^- → e⁺e^- q͞q, and QPM describe the data reasonably well, whereas the cross-section predicted by a Leading Order BFKL calculation is too large.