An eikonalized elastic proton-proton and proton-antiproton scattering amplitude, based on the suggestion of a finite sum of ladder diagrams, calculated from QCD and the number of $s-$channel gluon rungs and correspondingly the powers of logarithms in total cross section depends on available increasing energy. Explicit expressions for total cross section involving three and four rungs (four and five prongs), as highest terms, respectively) are fitted to the all available proton-proton and proton-antiproton total cross section data. Predictions for pp total cross section at LHC energy are given and compared with prediction of several Regge-models including possible hard Pomeron contribution.
A model for Pomeron-Pomeron total cross section in the resonance region $\sqrt{M^{2}} \le$ 5 GeV is presented. This model is based on Regge poles from the Pomeron and two different $f$ trajectories, and includes the isolated f$_{0}(500)$ resonance in the region $\sqrt{M^{2}}\lesssim 1$ GeV. A slowly varying background is included. The presented Pomeron-Pomeron cross section is not directly measurable, but is an essential ingredient for calculating exclusive resonance production at the LHC.
We discuss the BFKL equation with a running gauge coupling and identify in its solutions the contributions originating from different transverse momentum scales. We show that for a running coupling constant the distribution of the gluons making up the BFKL Pomeron shifts to smaller transverse momenta so that the dominant part of Pomeron can have a nonperturbative origin. It is demonstrated how this soft physics enters into the BFKL solution through the boundary condition. We consider two kinematical regimes leading to different behaviour of the rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of th…
We use a Monte Carlo implementation of recently developped models of inclusive and exclusive diffractive $W$, top, Higgs and stop productions to assess the sensitivity of the LHC experiments. We also discuss how the Tevatron experiments could test the models and measure the gluon density in the pomeron, which is needed to make precise predictions at the LHC.
We present some physics topics that can be studied at the LHC using proton tagging. We distinguish the QCD (Pomeron structure, BFKL analysis...) from the exploratory physics topics (HIggs boson, anomalous couplings between photons and $W/Z$ bosons)
Within the resolved Pomeron model of hard diffractive scattering, we compute prompt photon production in double-Pomeron-exchange events in proton-proton collisions. Using specific kinematical constraints chosen according to the acceptances of the forward proton detectors of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, we provide estimates for inclusive and isolated photon production. This is done using the JetPhox program. We find that next-to-leading order corrections to the hard process are important and must be included in order to correctly constrain the quark and gluon content of the Pomeron…
Contrary to common perceptions about systems produced in Single-Pomeron-Exchange (SPE) pp interactions, the hard diffractive process discovered at the CERN SPS-Collider leads to dominant central production of Higgs bosons at the LHC. The rate for SPE production of Higgs bosons is calculated to be 7-9 % of the total inclusive Higgs rate. In addition, an SPE measurement program of dijet events is outlined for the early days of LHC running which should answer many fundamental questions about the Pomeron structure and its effective flux factor in the proton.
We briefly describe a model for soft diffraction. The model description of ISR, SppbarS and Tevatron data, and the predictions of the total, elastic, single and double diffractive cross sections at the LHC can be found in the original paper. Here we address issues raised at Diffraction 2000, in particular concerning the nature of the resulting Pomeron trajectory.
The production of the $W$ and $Z$ bosons in single diffractive processes at the LHC is investigated taking into account the ATLAS, CMS and LHCb acceptances and considering different assumptions for the flavour content of the Pomeron. The total cross sections and pseudorapidity distributions are estimated for $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV. Our results indicate that a future experimental analysis of the ratio between the $W$ and $Z$ cross sections can be used to probe the flavour content of the Pomeron.
In this paper, the inclusive Pomeron-Pomeron, Reggeon-Reggeon, Pomeron-Reggeon as well as gluon-Pomeron(-Reggeon) and photon-Pomeron(-Reggeon) interactions for the $\rm η_{c}$ at the LHC energies have been examined in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collision modes. The cross section has been computed based on the NRQCD factorization and Regge theory formalism. The cross exchange of Pomeron-Reggeon contribution is important in $\rm pp$ and $\rm pA$ modes. The Pomeron-Pomeron contribution is significant in $\rm AA$ mode. The Pomeron contribution is considerable for $\rm AA$ an…
Adding two color sextet quarks to QCD gives many special features. The high-energy S-Matrix, constructed via reggeon diagrams and chiral anomalies, contains the Critical Pomeron and electroweak symmetry breaking is produced, by sextet pions. Cosmic ray phenomena suggest large cross-section effects will be seen at the LHC, in particular, involving the pomeron. The sextet sector embeds, uniquely, in a massless, confining, left-handed SU(5) theory. The anomaly based high-energy S-Matrix could be that of the full Standard Model.
We compute the proton-proton multiplicity distributions at LHC energies in the framework of a multiple scattering model assuming a Poisson distribution for each inelastic collision. Multiple scattering is essential to broaden the multiplicity distribution. We obtain approximate KNO scaling for small pseudo-rapidity intervals ($|η| < 0.5$) and sizable KNO scaling violations for larger ones, in agreement with experiment.
Recent models of soft diffraction include a hard pomeron pole besides the usual soft term. Such models violate the black-disk limit around Tevatron energies, so that they need to be supplemented by a unitarisation scheme. Several such schemes are considered in this letter, where we show that they lead to a large uncertainty at the LHC. We also examine the impact of unitarisation on various small-t observables, the slope in t of the elastic cross section, or the ratio of the real to imaginary parts of the scattering amplitude, leading to the conclusion that the existence of a hard pomeron in so…
We present a formalism for high energy soft processes, mediated by Pomerons, which embodies pion-loop insertions in the Pomeron trajectory, rescattering effects via a two-channel eikonal and high-mass diffractive dissociation. It describes all the main features of the data throughout the ISR to Tevatron energy interval. We give predictions for soft diffractive phenomena at the LHC energy, and we calculate the different survival probabilities of rapidity gaps which occur in various diffractive processes.
We study Higgs boson production via Double Pomeron Exchange allowing for the presence of Pomeron remnants. We estimate the number of events produced at the LHC collider, as a function of the Higgs boson mass and its decay channel. The model which successfully describes the high mass dijet spectrum observed at Tevatron (run I) is used to predict rates of events with tagged protons for the acceptance range of the CMS/Totem experiments. Sizeable cross-sections and encouraging event selection signals are found, demonstrating especially for smaller Higgs boson masses the importance to study the dif…
We consider hard diffractive events in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, in which both protons escape the collision intact. In such double Pomeron exchange processes, we propose to measure dijets and photon-jet final states, and we show that it has the potential to pin down the Pomeron quark and gluon contents, a crucial ingredient in the standard QCD description of hard diffraction. By comparing with predictions of the soft color interaction approach, we also show that more generally, the measurement of the photon-jet to di-jet cross section ratio can put stringent test on the QCD dynamics…
We discuss the production of two pion pairs in photon collisions at high energies as it can take place in ultraperipheral collisions at hadron colliders such as the LHC. We calculate the according matrix elements in kT factorization and discuss the possibility to reveal the existence of the perturbative Odderon by charge asymmetries.
The possibility to measure jet-gap-jet final states in double-Pomeron-exchange events at the LHC is presented. In the context of the ATLAS experiment with additional forward physics detectors, cross sections for different experimental settings and gap definitions are estimated. This is done in the framework of the Forward Physics Monte Carlo interfaced with a perturbative QCD model that successfully reproduces standard jet-gap-jet cross sections at the Tevatron. The extrapolation to LHC energies follows from the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov dynamics, implemented in the model at next-to-leadin…
We consider the first LHC data for pp collisions in the framework of Regge theory. The integral cross sections and inclusive densities of secondaries are determined by the Pomeron exchange, and we present the corresponding predictions for them. The first measurements of inclusive densities in midrapidity region are in agreement with these predictions. The possible contribution of Odderon (Reggeon with alpha(Odd)(0) ~ 1 and negative signature) exchange to the differences in the inclusive spectra of particle and antiparticle in the central region could be significant at LHC energies. The first d…
We describe some of the future measurements to be performed by the CMS, TOTEM and ATLAS collaborations on hard diffraction in order to understand better the structure of the Pomeron. We also describe the prospects concerning the search for quartic $γγγγ$ anomalous couplings and discuss a possible interpretation for the existence of a new particle decaying into two photons at a mass of about 750 GeV.
This work investigates the exclusive photoproduction of $ψ(2S)$ meson off nuclei evaluating the coherent and the incoherent contributions. The theoretical framework used in the present analysis is the light-cone dipole formalism and predictions are done for PbPb collisions at the CERN-LHC energy of 2.76 TeV. A comparison is done to the recent ALICE Collaboration data for the $ψ(1S)$ state photoproduction.
The proton diffractive structure function $F_2^{D(3)}$ measured in the H1 and ZEUS experiments at HERA are analysed in terms of perturbative QCD in the perspective of the QCD extrapolation to the Tevatron and the LHC. It is shown that both data sets can be well described by a QCD analysis in which point-like parton distributions, evolving according to the next-leading DGLAP equations, are assigned to the leading and sub-leading Regge exchanges. For present data from H1 and ZEUS the gluon distributions are found to be quite different and we give the corresponding sets of quark and gluon parton …
SU(5) gauge theory with massless left-handed fermions in the representation 5+15+40+45* (QUD) may have a bound-state S-Matrix that, uniquely, contains the asymptotically unitary Critical Pomeron and which might also reproduce the full Standard Model. If so, QUD would provide an underlying unification for the Standard Model in which very similar massless fermion anomaly dynamics is responsible for the physics of the strong and electroweak interactions and all particle masses are generated dynamically. The color sextet quark sector, responsible for both electroweak symmetry-breaking and dark mat…
We describe different physics topics which can be performed at the LHC using tagged intact protons, namely a better understanding of the Pomeron structure in terms of quarks and gluons, and the serach for quartic anomalous couplings.
In this paper we present a detailed comparison of the bottom production in gluon -- gluon, photon -- gluon, photon -- photon, pomeron -- gluon, pomeron -- pomeron and pomeron -- photon interactions at the LHC. The transverse momentum, pseudo -- rapidity and $ξ$ dependencies of the cross sections are calculated at LHC energy using the Forward Physics Monte Carlo (FPMC), which allows to obtain realistic predictions for the bottom production with one or two leading intact protons. Moreover, predictions for the the kinematical range probed by the LHCb Collaboration are also presented. Our results …
A Regge pole model for Pomeron-Pomeron total cross section in the resonance region $\sqrt{M^2}\le$ 5 GeV is presented. The cross section is saturated by direct-channel contributions from the Pomeron as well as from two different $f$ trajectories, accompanied by the isolated f$_0(500)$ resonance which dominates the $\sqrt{M^{2}}\lesssim 1$ GeV region. A slowly varying background is taken into account. The calculated Pomeron-Pomeron total cross section cannot be measured directly, but is an essential part of central diffractive processes. In preparation of future calculations of central resonanc…
We propose to look for the Odderon through the production of two pion pairs in photon collisions at high energies. We calculate the corresponding matrix elements in kT-factorization and discuss the possibility to reveal the existence of the perturbative Odderon by charge asymmetries, relying on models for the generalized distribution amplitudes of pi+ pi-. The application of this strategy to ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC suffers from the difficulty to trigger on interesting events and is plagued with severe background problems in p-p mode. Electron - positron colliders like ILC seem to…
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.
We estimate the production of two meson pairs in high energy photon photon collisions produced in ultraperipheral collisions at LHC. We show that the study of charge asymmetries may reveal the existence of the perturbative Odderon and discuss the concrete event rates expected at the LHC. Sizable rates and asymmetries are expected in the case of proton-proton collisions and medium values of gamma-gamma energies \sqrt{s_{γγ}} \approx 20GeV. Proton-proton collisions will benefit from a high rate due to a large effective gamma-gamma luminosity and ion-ion collisions with a somewhat lower rate from…
In the light of LHC data, we discuss the global description of all high energy elastic and diffractive data, using a one-pomeron model, but including multi-pomeron interactions. The LHC data indicate the need of a $k_t(s)$ behaviour, where $k_t$ is the gluon transverse momentum along the partonic ladder structure which describes the pomeron. We also discuss tensions in the data, as well as the $t$ dependence of the slope of $dσ_{el}/dt$ in the small $t$ domain.
We compare the WW and pomeron-pomeron fusion mechanisms for the double-diffractive production of a Higgs boson. We determine the suppression of the 'rapidity gap' pomeron-pomeron fusion events due to QCD radiative effects. In particular we use leading log techniques to estimate the cross sections for both exclusive and inclusive double-diffractive Higgs production at LHC energies. The same approach can be applied to the double-diffractive central production of large E_T dijets. These two processes provide one of the most justified applications of various aspects of leading logarithm QCD techni…
We discuss a model which gives a `global' description of the wide variety of high-energy elastic and diffractive data that are presently available, particularly from the LHC experiments. The model is based on only one pomeron pole, but includes multi-pomeron interactions. Significantly, the LHC measurements require that the model includes the transverse momentum dependence of the intermediate partons as a function of their rapidity, which results in a rapidity (or energy) dependence of the multi-pomeron vertices.
We discuss diffractive production of open charm and bottom mesons at the LHC. The differential cross sections for single- and central-diffractive mechanisms for $c\bar c$ and $b\bar b$ pair production are calculated in the framework of the Ingelman-Schlein model corrected for absorption effects. In this approach one assumes that the pomeron has a well defined partonic structure, and that the hard process takes place in a pomeron-proton or proton-pomeron (single diffraction) or pomeron-pomeron (central diffraction) processes. Here, leading-order gluon-gluon fusion and quark-antiquark anihilatio…
The positive baryon-antibaryon production asymmetries that have been measured at LHC are real demonstrations of string junction dynamics in the proton-proton interactions of high energies. The topological presentation of pomeron exchange in the proton-proton collision of high energy is cylinder diagram that is covered with quark-gluon net. I assume that the process of double diffraction (DD) can be presented as a diagram of one pomeron exchange with the central loop of two pomeron cylinders, that is similar to the pomeron diagram with the handle or the pomeron torus. Taking into account that t…
A new production mechanism for the Standard Model Higgs boson in Ultraperipheral Collisions at LHC, which allows Central Exclusive Diffractive production by Double Pomeron Exchange in photon-proton processes, is presented. The Higgs boson is centrally produced by gluon fusion with two Large Rapidity Gaps emerging in the final state, being the main experimental signature for this process. As already studied for Pomeron-Pomeron and two-photon processes, the Higgs boson photoproduction is studied within this new mechanism in proton-proton ($pp$) and proton-nucleus ($pA$) collisions, where each sy…
We analyze contributions to the heavy vector meson production with large transverse momentum in proton--proton and diffractive photon--proton scattering driven by an exchange of two Balitsky--Fadin--Kuraev--Lipatov Pomerons in the squared amplitudes. The Pomerons couple to a single parton and form a Pomeron loop closed by the vector meson impact factors. For the photon--proton case the diffractive cut of the Pomeron loop contributes, and for the inclusive hadroproduction one finds the loop with two cut Pomerons. We compute both of these Pomeron loop contributions and study in detail their prop…
The Critical Pomeron solution of high-energy unitarity leads to a unique underlying massless field theory that might be the origin of the Standard Model. A color sextet quark sector - producing both electroweak symmetry breaking and dark matter - is added to QCD to saturate asymptotic freedom. The sextet sector is then embedded uniquely in ``QUD'' - an anomaly free, just asymptotically free, massless SU(5) theory with elementary lepton and triplet quark sectors very close to the Standard Model. A multi-regge bound-state S-Matrix is constructed using infra-red divergent scaling reggeon interact…
We present a `new generation' model for high energy proton-proton `soft' interactions. It allows for a full set of multi-Pomeron vertices, as well as including multichannel eikonal scattering. It describes the behaviour of the proton-proton total, sigma(total), and elastic dsigma(el)/dt, cross sections together with those for low and high mass proton dissociation. Although the model contains a comprehensive set of multi-Pomeron diagrams, it has a simple partonic interpretation. Including the more complicated multi-Pomeron vertices reduces the absorptive effects as compared to the predictions i…
We emphasize the sizeable effects of absorption on high-energy `soft' processes, and, hence, the necessity to include multi-Pomeron-Pomeron interactions in the usual multi-channel eikonal description. We present a model which includes a complete set of the multi-Pomeron vertices and which accounts for the diffusion in both, the impact parameter and ln(k_t), of the parton during its evolution in rapidity. We tune the model to the available data for soft processes in the CERN-ISR to Tevatron energy range. We make predictions for `soft' observables at the LHC.
We quantify the rate and the signal-to-background ratio for Higgs --> b anti-b detection in double-diffractive events at the Tevatron and the LHC. The signal is predicted to be very small at the Tevatron, but observable at the LHC. We show that the double-diffractive dijet production may serve as a unique gluon factory. This process can be used also as a Pomeron-Pomeron luminosity monitor.
The model of elastic scattering amplitudes dominated by the triple (at $t=0$) pomeron pole suggested earlier is modified to confront to existing experimental data on $pp$ and $\bar pp$ total and differential cross sections at $\sqrt{s}\geq 19$ GeV and $|t|\leq 14.2$ GeV$^{2}$ including the newest TOTEM data. Predictions for the future TOTEM measurements at 13 and 14 TeV are given.
We discuss how the main features of high-energy `soft' and `semihard' pp collisions may be described in terms of parton cascades and multi-Pomeron exchange. The interaction between Pomerons produces an effective infrared cutoff, k_{sat}, by the absorption of low k_t partons. This provides the possibility of extending the parton approach, used for `hard' processes, to also describe high-energy soft and semihard interactions. In particular, the presence of the cutoff k_{sat}, which increases with collider energy, means that the production and hadronization of minijets with p_t\gapproxeq k_{sat} …
Measurements of soft and hard diffractive processes have been performed at the Tevatron p-pbar collider during the past decade. Diffractive events are studied by means of identification of one or more rapidity gaps and/or a leading antiproton. Here, results are discussed within the Tevatron data and compared to those obtained at the HERA ep collider. The traditional ``pomeron'' is described within the framework of QCD and the issues discussed include pomeron structure, diffractive cross section factorization, and universality of rapidity gap formation. Exclusive dijet and low-mass state produc…
In this contribution we report on the investigation of central diffractive production of mesons $f_0(980)$ and $f_2(1270)$ at the energy of Large Hadron Collider in proton-proton collisions. The cross sections and rapidity distributions for these low-lying mesons are analyzed. The Pomeron-Pomeron process was considered relying on a nonperturbative Pomeron model which is justified by the low mass of considered resonances. The associated theoretical uncertainties are discussed.
We note that the definition of diffractive events is a matter of convention. We discuss two possible `definitions': one based on unitarity and the other on Large Rapidity Gaps (LRG) or Pomeron exchange. LRG can also arise from fluctuations and we quantify this effect and some of the related uncertainties. We find care must be taken in extracting the Pomeron contribution from LRG events. We show that long-range correlations in multiplicities can arise from the same multi-Pomeron diagrams that are responsible for LRG events, and explain how early LHC data can illuminate our understanding of `sof…
A simple model for elastic diffractive hadron scattering, reproducing the dip-bump structure is used to analyze PP and $\bar PP$ scattering. The main emphasis is on the delicate and non-trivial dynamics in the dip-bump region, near t=-1 GeV$^2$. The simplicity of the model and the expected smallness of the absorption corrections enables one the control of various contributions to the scattering amplitude, in particular the interplay between the C-even and C-odd components of the amplitude, as well as their relative contribution, changing with s and t. The role of the non-linearity of the Regge…
A method allowing for a direct comparison of data with theoretical predictions is proposed for forward jet production at HERA and Mueller-Navelet jets at Tevatron and LHC. An application to the determination of the effective Pomeron intercept in the BFKL-LO parametrization from d sigma/dx data at HERA leads to a good fit with a significantly higher effective intercept, $α_P= 1.43 \pm 0.025 (stat.) \pm 0.025 (syst.),$ than for proton (total and diffractive) structure functions. It is however less than the value of the pomeron intercept using dijets with large rapidity intervals obtained at Teva…
We emphasize the importance of tagging the outgoing forward protons to sharpen the predictions for New Physics at the LHC (such as the diffractive production of a light Higgs boson). The rescattering effects lead to a rich distinctive structure of the cross section as a function of the transverse momenta of the protons. We show that a study of the correlations between the proton transverse momenta for double-diffractive production of central dijets will provide a detailed check of the whole diffractive formalism. Adopting a perturbative two-gluon structure of the Pomeron, we emphasize that 2++…
We explore the possibility of observing odderon exchange in the $pp \to pp K^{+}K^{-}$ and $pp \to pp μ^{+}μ^{-}$ reactions at the LHC. We consider the central exclusive production (CEP) of the $ϕ(1020)$ resonance decaying into $K^{+} K^{-}$ and $μ^{+}μ^{-}$. We compare the purely diffractive contribution (odderon-pomeron fusion) to the photoproduction contribution (photon-pomeron fusion). The theoretical results are calculated within the tensor-pomeron and vector-odderon model for soft reactions. We include absorptive corrections at the amplitude level. In order to fix the coupling constants …
In this contribution we study for the first time the prompt photon production in single and double diffractive processes considering the resolved Pomeron model. We estimate the rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of the cross section for the production of two photons and of a photon and a jet. We show that these processes are sensitive to the pomeron structure. In contrast with the dijet and heavy quark production, which are dominated by gluon-gluon interactions, in prompt photon production, Compton like processes are dominant for single photon plus jet events. This gives a unique opor…
Using a model based on two elements: the Good-Walker mechanism for low mass diffraction and multi-pomeron interactions for high mass diffraction, we obtain an excellent description of all aspects of soft scattering at high energy. The parameters of the model are determined by a fit to experimental data, giving the slope of pomeron to be $α'_{IP} \approx 0.01 GeV^{-2}$. We calculate the survival probability of diffractive Higgs production, and obtained a value for this observable, which is smaller than 1% for the LHC energy range.
This study focuses on hard diffractive events produced in proton-proton collision at LHC exhibiting one intact proton in the final state which can be tagged by forward detectors. We report prospective results on the W boson charge asymmetry measured for such events, which allow to constrain the quark diffractive density functions in the Pomeron.
We present a study of diffractive associated jpsi + gamma production at the Fermilab Tevatron and LHC based on the Ingelman-Schlein model for hard diffractive scattering and the factorization formalism of NRQCD for quarkonia production. We find that this process (p + pbar to p + jpsi + gamma + X) can be used to probe the gluon content of the Pomeron and test the assumption of diffractive hard scattering factorization. Using the renormalized Pomeron flux factor D simeq 0.11 (0.052), the single diffractive jpsi + gamma production cross section at 4<P_T< 10 GeV, -1<eta<1 region is found to be of …
We review some selected results of the tensor-pomeron and vector-odderon model of soft high-energy proton-proton scattering and central exclusive production of meson and baryon pairs in proton-proton collisions. We discuss the theoretical aspects of this approach and consider the phenomenological implications in a variety of processes at high energies, comparing to existing experimental data. We consider the diffractive dipion and dikaon production including the continuum and the dominant scalar and tensor resonance contributions as well as the photoproduction processes. The theoretical result…
We study the behaviour of elastic and diffractive proton dissociation cross sections at high energy. First, we describe what would be expected to be observed at the LHC based on conventional Regge theory. We emphasize the tension between these expectations and the recent LHC measurements, and we discuss the possibilty to modify the classic Reggeon Field Theory in a physically-motivated way so as to accommodate the tendencies observed at the LHC. As a result, we show that we are able to achieve a `global' description of the wide variety of high energy elastic and diffractive data that are prese…
The inclusive double Pomeron exchange cross section for heavy quark pair production is calculated for nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC. The present estimate is based on hard diffractive factorization, corrected by absorptive corrections and nuclear effects. The theoretical uncertainties for nuclear collisions are investigated and a comparison to other approaches is presented. The production channels producing a similar final state configuration are discussed as well.
