We show how the early data runs of the LHC can provide valuable checks of the different components of the formalism used to predict the cross sections of central exclusive processes. The `soft' rapidity gap survival factor can be studied in electroweak processes, such as W+gaps events, where the bare amplitude is well known. The generalized gluon distribution, in the appropriate kinematic region, can be probed by exclusive Upsilon production. The perturbative QCD effects, especially the Sudakov-like factor, can be probed by exclusive two- and three-jet production. We discuss the possible role of enhanced absorptive corrections which would violate the soft-hard factorization implied in the usual formalism, and suggest ways that the LHC may explore their presence.
We use a Monte Carlo implementation of recently developped models of double diffractive Higgs production to assess the sensitivity of the LHC experiments.
Two theoretical descriptions of exclusive diffractive jets and Higgs production at the LHC were implemented into the FPMC generator: the Khoze, Martin, Ryskin model and the Cudell, Hernández, Ivanov, Dechambre exclusive model. We then study the uncertainties. We compare their predictions to the CDF measurement and discuss the possibility of constraining the exclusive Higgs production at the LHC with early measurements of exclusive jets. We show that the present theoretical uncertainties can be reduced with such data by a factor of 5.
On February 6, 2019, an EMMI workshop on 'Central exclusive production at the LHC' was held at Heidelberg. Here we make some remarks on the topics presented in the talks and the discussions of this meeting. We hope that this will be useful for further studies of central exclusive reactions.
We show that the early LHC measurements can provide crucial checks of the different components of the formalism used to predict the cross sections of central exclusive processes.
Exclusive double diffractive (EDD) Higgs boson production is analyzed in the framework of the Regge-eikonal approach. Total and differential cross-sections for the process $p+p\to p+H+p$ are calculated. Experimental possibilities to find Higgs boson at LHC are discussed.
Exclusive double diffractive events (EDDE) are considered in the framework of the Regge-eikonal approach and perturbative calculations for "hard" subprocesses. Total and differential cross-sections for processes $p+p\to p+X+p$ are calculated.
After a brief resume of the theory underpinning the central exclusive process (CEP) pp \to p+H+p, attention is focussed upon Higgs bosons produced in the Standard Model, the MSSM and the NMSSM. In all cases, CEP adds significantly to the physics potential of the LHC and in some scenarios it may be crucial.
Exclusive photoproduction of heavy quarkonia at HERA is analyzed in the framework of the Regge-eikonal approach together with the nonrelativistic bound state formalism. Total and differential cross-sections for the process $γ+p\to (Q\bar{Q})_{1S}+p$ are calculated. The model predicts cross-sections of Exclusive Double Diffractive Events (EDDE) at TeVatron and LHC.
The cross section for exclusive $Υ$ ultraperipheral photoproduction at present and future colliders is determined using the low $x$ gluon PDF extracted from an analysis of exclusive $J/ψ$ measurements performed at HERA and the LHC. Predictions are given at next-to-leading order in collinear factorisation over a wide $γp$ centre-of-mass energy range, calculated assuming the non-relativistic approximation for the $Υ$ wave function, and with skewing corrections incorporated.
We study the potential of the exclusive $pp\to p\ell^-\ell^+p$ process to probe excited leptons at the LHC which is known to be one of the most clean channel at the hadron colliders. The sensitivity of the model parameters is obtained 95% confidence level by considering three forward detector acceptances; $0.0015< ξ< 0.5$, $0.0015< ξ<0.15$ and $0.1< ξ< 0.5$.
The recent LHCb data for exclusive $J/ψ$ peripheral production at 13 TeV motivate an improved `NLO' analysis to estimate the gluon distribution at low $x$ in which we re-calculate the rapidity gap survival factors and use a more precise expression for the photon flux. We comment on the difference between the $k_T$ and collinear factorization approaches.
We study the exclusive production of heavy flavors at central rapidities in hadron-hadron collisions within the kT factorisation formalism. Since this involves regions of small Bjorken x in the unintegrated gluon densities, we include the next-to-leading order BFKL contributions working directly in transverse momentum representation. Our results are presented in a form suitable for Monte Carlo implementation.
The prospects for central exclusive diffractive (CED) production of MSSM Higgs bosons at the LHC are reviewed. These processes can provide important information on the $\cp$-even Higgs bosons, allowing to probe interesting regions of the $\MA$--$\tb$ parameter plane. The sensitivity of the searches in the forward proton mode for the Higgs bosons in the so-called CDM-benchmark scenarios and the effects of fourth-generation models on the CED Higgs production are briefly discussed.
We calculate the amplitude of gg->bb(bar) production for the colour singlet, J_z=0 di-gluon state at O(α_S^2) order. We consider the cancellation, and a realistic cutoff, of the infrared divergent terms. We show that the one-loop radiative QCD contributions effectively reduce the Born level result for the central exclusive bb(bar) cross section at the LHC. This process is essentially the only irreducible QCD background to the exclusive H->bb(bar) signal.
Diffractive physics program for ATLAS and CMS is discussed with emphasis on measurements of central exclusive processes. At low luminosities, a L1 trigger based on requiring rapidity gaps can be used, while at high luminosities, the use of proton taggers proposed to be placed at 220 m and 420 m from the interaction point is foreseen.
Protons and antiprotons at collider energies are a source of high energy Weizsaecker--Williams photons. This opens up a possibility to study at the LHC exclusive photoproduction of heavy vector mesons at energies much larger than possible at the HERA accelerator. We present selected results of our detailed studies of various distributions for the production of heavy quarkonia (e.g. rapidity, transverse momenta, azimuthal angles). We give predictions for LHC energies. Our calculations are based on modelling the photoproduction amplitudes in a k_\perp-factorisation approach which is checked agai…
We present a range of physics results for central exclusive production processes at the LHC, using the new SuperChic 2 Monte Carlo event generator. This includes significant theoretical improvements and updates, most importantly a fully differential treatment of the soft survival factor, as well as a greater number of generated processes. We provide an overview of the latest theoretical framework, and consider in detail a selection of final states, namely exclusive 2 and 3 jets, photoproduced vector mesons, two-photon initiated muon and $W$ boson pairs and heavy $χ_{c,b}$ quarkonia.
The exclusive production pp->pXp is known to be one of the most clean channels at the LHC. We investigate the potential of processes pp -> p l-l+ p and pp-> p gamma gamma p to probe scalar and tensor unparticles by considering three different forward detector acceptances; 0.0015<xi<0.15, 0.0015<xi<0.5 and 0.1<xi<0.5. We obtain 95% confidence level sensitivity limits on the unparticle couplings for various integrated luminosities.
In this paper, it is shown that in hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions, the main source for central exclusive diffractive Higgs production is photon-photon fusion. At the LHC energy, the total cross section for this process is about 0.6 pb (for proton-gold scattering), and 3.9 nb (for gold-gold collision) while the gluon-gluon fusion leads to the value of the cross section for CED Higgs production which is about 0.1 nb and 3.9 pb respectively.
A model for exclusive diffractive resonance production in proton-proton collisions at LHC energies is presented. This model is based on the convolution of the Donnachie-Landshoff parameterisation of Pomeron flux in the proton with the Pomeron cross section for resonance production. The hadronic cross section for f$_{0}$(980) and f$_{2}$(1270) production at midrapidity is given differentially in mass and transverse momentum of the resonance. The proton fractional longitudinal momentum loss is presented.
We examine the possibility of producing gluino pairs at the LHC via the exclusive reaction pp -> p+gluino+gluino+p in the case where the gluinos are long lived. Such long lived gluinos are possible if the scalar super-partners have large enough masses. We show that it may be possible to observe the gluinos via their conversion to R-hadron jets and measure their mass to better than 1% accuracy for masses below 350 GeV with 300/fb of data.
We review the prospects for Central Exclusive Production (CEP) of BSM Higgs bosons at the LHC using forward proton detectors proposed to be installed at 220 m and 420 m from the ATLAS and/ or CMS. Results are presented for MSSM in standard benchmark scenarios, in scenarios compatible with the Cold Dark Matter relic abundance and other precision measurements, and for SM with a fourth generation of fermions. We show that CEP can give a valuable information about spin-parity properties of the Higgs bosons.
We review the prospects for Central Exclusive Production (CEP) of BSM Higgs bosons at the LHC using forward proton detectors proposed to be installed at 220 m and 420 m from the ATLAS and/ or CMS. Results are presented for MSSM in standard benchmark scenarios and in scenarios compatible with the Cold Dark Matter relic abundance and other precision measurements. Following results of the LHC Higgs boson searches, we investigate a hypothesis that candidates found at a mass of 125 GeV are compatible with light CP-even MSSM Higgs bosons. We show that CEP can give a valuable information about spin-p…
Exclusive photoproduction of dileptons, gamma p ->l+ l- p, will be measured in ultraperipheral collisions at LHC. The mechanism where the lepton pair comes from a heavy timelike photon radiated from a quark interferes with the pure QED process gamma gamma ->l+ l- As an analog of deeply virtual Compton scattering, this timelike Compton scattering is a way to study generalized parton distributions in the nucleon or the nucleus. High energy kinematics will enable to focus on gluon distributions. Nuclear effects may be scrutinized in heavy ion collisions.
In this paper we discuss the survival probability for exclusive central diffractive production of a colorless small size system at the LHC. This process has a clear signature of two large rapidity gaps. Using the eikonal approach for the description of soft interactions, we predict the value of the survival probability to be about 5~6% for single channel models, while for a two channel model the survival probability is about 3%. The dependence of the survival probability factor (damping factor) on the transverse momenta of the recoiled protons is discussed, and we suggest it be measured at the…
The photonuclear production of vector mesons in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions is investigated within the collinear approach using different parameterizations for the nuclear gluon distribution. The integrated cross section and the rapidity distribution for the $AA \to V AA$ ($V = J/Ψ, Υ$) process are computed for energies of RHIC and LHC. A comparison with the recent PHENIX data on coherent production of $J/Ψ$ mesons is also presented. We demonstrate that the study of the exclusive quarkonium photoproduction can be used to constrain the nuclear effects in the gluon distribution.
We investigate the prospects for Central Exclusive Diffractive (CED) production of BSM Higgs bosons at the LHC using forward proton detectors installed at 220 m and 420 m distance around ATLAS and / or CMS. We update a previous analysis for the MSSM taking into account improvements in the theoretical calculations and the most recent exclusion bounds from the Tevatron. We extend the MSSM analysis to new benchmark scenarios that are in agreement with the cold dark matter relic abundance and other precision measurements. We analyse the exclusive production of Higgs bosons in a model with a fourth…
Central exclusive Higgs boson production, pp -> p + H + p, at the LHC and s-channel resonant Higgs production in the photon-collider option of the ILC can provide a very important contribution to the comprehensive study of the Higgs sector. Especially attractive is the b bbar Higgs decay mode, which for certain MSSM scenarios may become the discovery channel in exclusive Higgs production at the LHC and the Photon Collider (PC). Strongly suppressed and controllable backgrounds is an obvious requirement for the success of these exclusive measurements. One of the main sources of background comes …
We analyze the LHC prospects for measurements of the $t\bar{t}$ pair produced exclusively in photon-photon or semi-exclusively in photon-Pomeron and Pomeron-Pomeron processes using protons tagged in forward proton detectors on both sides of the interaction point. These processes are interesting from the point of view of a possible measurement of the top quark mass and constraining models used in Beyond Standard Model physics. Focusing on the semi-leptonic channel, $t\bar{t}\rightarrow jjblν_l\bar{b}$, making use of the exclusive nature of the final state, together with the use of timing inform…
In this report, we describe the most recent results on exclusive diffraction from the ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, TOTEM experiments at the LHC concerning exclusive pions, $J/Ψ$, $Ψ(2S)$, dilepton, diphoton, $WW$ productions and prospects concerning the search for anomalous couplings and axion-like particle production.
The prospects for central exclusive diffractive (CED) production of MSSM Higgs bosons at the LHC are reviewed. It is shown that the CED channels, making use of forward proton detectors at the LHC installed at 220 m and 420 m distance around ATLAS and / or CMS, can provide important information on the Higgs sector of the MSSM. In particular, CED production of the neutral CP-even Higgs bosons h and H and their decays into bottom quarks has the potential to probe interesting regions of the M_A--tan_beta parameter plane of the MSSM and may give access to the bottom Yukawa couplings of the Higgs bo…
We provide predictions for the rapidity distributions of exclusive photoproduced J/psi and Upsilon mesons, and Z^0 bosons, at the Tevatron and LHC. We use the equivalent-photon approximation with the photon-proton cross sections given by the impact parameter dependent dipole saturation model, which has already been shown to give a good description of a wide variety of HERA data. We derive the quark-antiquark light-cone wave functions of timelike neutral electroweak bosons. An essential difference is pointed out between the amplitude for timelike heavy boson photoproduction and the amplitude fo…
The two-photon exclusive production of charged supersymmetric pairs at the LHC has a clean and unique signature - two very forward scattered protons and two opposite charged leptons produced centraly. For low-mass SUSY scenarios, significant cross-sections are expected and background processes are well controlled. Measurement of the forward proton energies would allow for mass reconstruction of right-handed sleptons and the LSP with a few GeV resolution. Methods to reduce backgrounds at high luminosity resulting from accidental coincidences between events in the central and forward detectors a…
Rapidity distributions of vector mesons are computed in dipole model proton-lead ultraperipheral collisions(UPCs) at the CERN Larger Hadron Collider(LHC). The dipole model framework is implemented in the calculations of cross sections in the photon-hadron interaction. The bCGC model and Boosted Gaussian wave functions are employed in the scattering amplitude. We obtain predictions of rapidity distributions of $J/ψ$ meson proton-lead ultraperipheral collisions. The predictions give a good descriptions to the experimental data of ALICE. The rapidity distributions of $ϕ$, $ω$ and $ψ(2s)$ mesons i…
In "$η_c$ production in photon-induced interactions at the LHC," \cite{Goncalves:2018yxc} Goncalves and Moreira discuss inclusive and exclusive $η_c$ production at $pp$ and $pA$ collisions at LHC energies. The exclusive channels are via two-photon and photon-Odderon interactions. This comment points out that there is a large additional source of almost-exclusive $η_c$ in ultra-peripheral collisions: from the radiative decay of $J/ψ$ that are produced in photon-nucleon interactions. Although the $J/ψ\rightarrowγη_c$ branching ratio is small, the $J/ψ$ production cross-section is large enough th…
We discuss the prospects of searching for the neutral Higgs bosons of the triplet model in central exclusive production at the LHC. A detailed Monte Carlo analysis is presented for six benchmark scenarios for the Higgs boson, $H_1^{0}$, these cover $m_{H_1^0}=$~120, 150 GeV and doublet-triplet mixing of $c_H=$~0.2, 0.5 or 0.8. We find that, for appropriate values of $c_H$, an excellent Higgs mass measurement is possible for the neutral Higgs in the triplet model, and discuss how to distinguish the triplet model Higgs boson from the Higgs boson of the Standard Model.
The perturbative QCD expansion for $J/ψ$ photoproduction appears to be unstable: the NLO correction is large (and of opposite sign) to the LO contribution. Moreover, the predictions are very sensitive to the choice of factorization and renormalization scales. Here we show that perturbative stability is greatly improved by imposing a $`Q_0$ cut' on the NLO coefficient functions; a cut which is required to avoid double counting. $Q_0$ is the input scale used in the parton DGLAP evolution. This result opens the possibility of high precision exclusive $J/ψ$ data in the forward direction at the LHC…
The Higgs boson production is investigated in proton-proton collisions at next-to-leading-order accuracy in central exclusive diffractive processes at the LHC. The production process by the double Pomeron exchange is analyzed in the diffractive factorization through the Ingelman-Schlein approach, taking into account the parton content of the Pomeron by the diffractive partonic distribution function provided by the H1 Collaboration. Hence, we estimate the production cross section of the Higgs boson as well as its rapidity distribution for distinct energies of the LHC. Also, we include the gap s…
By using a Regge-pole model for vector meson production (VMP), successfully describing the HERA data, we analyse the correlation between VMP cross sections in photon-induced reactions at HERA and those in ultra-peripheral collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The rapidity distributions of proton-proton collisions at 13~TeV and lead-lead collisions at 2.76 and 5.02 TeV are investigated. The transverse momentum distribution in nuclear coherent vector meson production is also addressed. Predictions for future experiments on production of $J/ψ$ and $ψ(2S)$ are presented.
In this contribution we report on the investigations of the exclusive production of J/psi and psi(2S) states in proton-proton and nucleus-nucleus reactions at the LHC using the theoretical framework of light-cone dipole formalism.
The cross section for exclusive psi(2S) ultraperipheral production at the LHC is calculated using gluon parametrisations extracted from exclusive J/psi measurements performed at HERA and the LHC. Predictions are given at leading and next-to-leading order for pp centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 14 TeV, assuming the non-relativistic approximation for the psi(2S) wave function.
There seem to be recently an evidence for $C = -1$ odderon exchange in proton-proton elastic scattering at high energies. Here we discuss three different central-exclusive-production processes $pp \to pp (ϕ\to K^{+}K^{-})$, $pp \to pp (ϕ\to μ^{+}μ^{-})$, and $pp \to pp ϕϕ\to pp K^{+}K^{-}K^{+}K^{-}$, as a possible source of information for soft odderon exchange. The theoretical results are calculated within the tensor-pomeron and vector-odderon model for soft reactions. We include absorptive corrections at the amplitude level. To describe the low-energy data measured in the past by the WA102 c…
We investigate the prospects for Central Exclusive Production (CEP) of MSSM Higgs bosons at the LHC using forward proton detectors proposed to be installed at 220 m and 420 m distance around ATLAS and / or CMS. We summarize the situation after the first and very successful data taking period of the LHC. The discovery of a Higgs boson and results from searches for additional MSSM Higgs bosons from both the ATLAS and CMS experiments, based on data samples each corresponding to about 25 fb-1, have recently led to a proposal of new low-energy MSSM benchmark scenarios. The CEP signal cross section …
In these lectures, we present and discuss the most recent results on inclusive diffraction at the Tevatron collider and give the prospects at the LHC. We also describe the search for exclusive events at the Tevatron. Of special interest is the exclusive production of Higgs boson and heavy objects ($W$, top, stop pairs) at the LHC which will require precise measurements and analyses of inclusive and exclusive diffraction to constrain further the gluon density in the pomeron. At the end of these lectures, we describe the projects to install forward detectors at the LHC to fulfil these measuremen…
Diffractive processes possible to be measured at the LHC are listed and briefly discussed. This includes soft (elastic scattering, exclusive meson pair production, diffractive bremsstrahlung) and hard (single and double Pomeron exchange jets, $γ$+jet, W/Z, jet-gap-jet, exclusive jets) processes as well as Beyond Stanrad Model phenomena (anomalous gauge couplings, magnetic monopoles).
We evaluate differential distributions for the four-body $p p \to n n π^+ π^+$ reaction. The amplitude for the process is calculated in the Regge approach including many diagrams. We make predictions for possible future experiments at RHIC and LHC energies. Very large cross sections are found which is partially due to interference of a few mechanisms. Presence of several interfering mechanisms precludes extraction of the elastic $π^+ π^+$ scattering cross section. Absorption effects are estimated. Differential distributions in pseudorapidity, rapidity, invariant two-pion mass, transverse-momen…
The implementation of exclusive diffractive production of Higgs boson and dijets in the FPMC (Forward Physics Monte Carlo) framework is presented following the models by Khoze, Martin, Ryskin and Cudell, Dechambre, Hernandez and Ivanov. The predictions of the models are compared to the CDF measurement of exclusive jets and the uncertainties on the Higgs boson and jet production cross sections at the LHC are discussed.
We examine, as a correction to the central exclusive Higgs boson production in $pp$ collisions at the LHC, the rescattering of gluonic ladders off the proton. As usual, at the lowest order the hard part of this process can be described as a fusion of two hard gluonic ladders. We calculate corrections to this hard amplitude which are due to rescattering of these ladders. These corrections, which contain high mass diffractive excitations of the proton, have not yet been taken into account by the usual soft survival probabilities. We find that the correction due to the exchange of a single hard r…
We present predictions for the diffractive production of $χ$ mesons in the central rapidity region usually covered by collider detectors. The predicted cross sections are based on the Bialas-Landshoff formalism for both exclusive and inclusive production and makes use of the DPEMC Monte-Carlo simulation adapted with kinematics appropriate for small-mass diffractive production. We compare generator-level results with a CDF measurement for exclusive $χ$ production, and study background and other scenarios including the contribution of inclusive $χ$ production. The results agree with the Tevatron…
We review activities in the field of theoretical, phenomenological and experimental studies related to the production of the Higgs boson in central exclusive processes at LHC in models beyond Standard Model. Prospects in the context of the Higgs boson discovery at LHC in 2012 and of proposals to build forward proton detectors at ATLAS and CMS side are summarized.
We discuss the salient features of exclusive vector meson production in heavy ion collisions at LHC energies. Special attention is paid to the space-time picture of the process. We account for both coherent and incoherent contributions. The explicit quantitative predictions are given for the $ρ$-meson differential cross section in lead-lead collisions in different kinematical configurations relevant for the LHCb and ALICE experiments.
The feasibility studies of the central exclusive jet production at the LHC using the proton tagging technique are presented. Three classes of data taking scenarios are considered: double tag at high pile-up, single tag at low pile-up and double tag at low pile-up. Analyses were performed at the c.m. energy of 14 TeV for the ATLAS experiment, but are also valid for the CMS/TOTEM detectors.
Central exclusive production (CEP) processes in high-energy proton -- (anti)proton collisions offer a very promising framework within which to study both novel aspects of QCD and new physics signals. Among the many interesting processes that can be studied in this way, those involving the production of heavy (c,b) quarkonia and gamma gamma states have sufficiently well understood theoretical properties and sufficiently large cross sections that they can serve as `standard candle' processes with which we can benchmark predictions for new physics CEP at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Motivated …
In this paper we argue that having available higher order fully exclusive Monte Carlo generator for Higgs boson production from heavy quark fusion will be mandatory for data analysis at LHC. The H to tau tau channel, a key for early discovery of the Higgs boson in the MSSM scenario, is discussed. With simplified example and for mH = 120 GeV we show, that depending on choice among presently available approaches, used for simulation of Higgs boson production from b bbar H Yukawa coupling, final acceptance for the signal events being reconstructed inside mass window may differ by a factor of 3. T…
We discuss some different new aspects of $J/ψ$ meson production in exclusive, semi-exclusive and inclusive processes. We finish with a short discussion of double $J/ψ$ production. We point out some new results obtained recently by our group and discuss some open issues.
We study the photoproduction of exclusive $2π^+2π^-$ mesons in ultra-peripheral heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. Predictions in photon-nucleus interactions are calculated for various resonances at central and forward rapidities. The recent H1 preliminary data are utilized to improve the description of the poorly known $γp \to 4π^\pm p$ process. We present the comparisons of our results to the available STAR data at RHIC, and made predictions for LHC energies.
