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 collaboration we consider also subleading processes with reggeized vector-meson exchanges and reggeons. We discuss possible evidences for odderon exchange at the low energies and try to make predictions at the LHC.
Phenomenological studies of odderon effects are shortly reviewed. Special emphasis is devoted to a recent study of the exclusive production of J/psi or Upsilon in pp and bar p p collisions, where the meson emerges from the pomeron--odderon and the pomeron--photon fusion.
We briefly present the QCD based calculation of exclusive J/psi production via pomeron-odderon fusion in proton-antiproton collisions. For the Tevatron energy the differential cross section dsigma/dy(y=0) is estimated to be around 1 nb.
We study the exclusive production of J/psi or Upsilon in pp and bar pp collisions, where the meson emerges from the pomeron--odderon and the pomeron--photon fusion. We estimate the cross sections for these processes for the kinematical conditions of the Tevatron and of the LHC.
In this talk estimates are presented of the odderon contributions to the exclusive J/psi and Upsilon production cross-sections at the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider. The obtained cross-sections are compared to cross-sections of the dominant background subprocesses mediated by the photon exchange. Possible experimental cuts are proposed that reduce the photon background.
We study pp and p\bar p collisions which lead to the exclusive production of J/psi or Upsilon from the pomeron-odderon and the pomeron-photon fusion. We calculate scattering amplitudes of these processes in the lowest order approximation and in the framework of k_T factorization. We present estimates of cross sections for the kinematic conditions of the Tevatron and of the LHC.
We discuss the possibility to use the $pp \to pp ϕϕ$ process in identifying the odderon exchange. So far there is no unambiguous experimental evidence for the odderon, the charge conjugation $C = -1$ counterpart of the $C= +1$ pomeron. Last year results of the TOTEM collaboration suggest that the odderon exchange can be responsible for a disagreement of theoretical calculations and the TOTEM data for elastic proton-proton scattering. Here we present recent studies for central exclusive production (CEP) of $ϕϕ$ pairs in proton-proton collisions. We consider the pomeron-pomeron fusion to $ϕϕ$ ($…
Theory and phenomenology of the eta_c photo- and electroproduction is developed from the point of view of probing the odderon singularity in QCD which corresponds to the three gluon exchange mechanism. This mechanism leads to the cross-sections which are independent of W^2 for the exchange of three non-interacting gluons or exhibit increase with increasing W^2 (or 1/x) for the odderon intercept above unity. The η_c electroproduction in the three gluon exchange mechanism is shown to be entirely controlled by the transversely polarised virtual photons. The magnitude of the eta_c photoproduction …
We explore the possibility of observing Odderon exchange in proton--ion collisions at the LHC, via the ultraperipheral photoproduction of C-even mesons. As well as the signal, we consider in detail the principle backgrounds, due to QCD--initiated production (i.e. double Pomeron exchange) and $γγ$ fusion. We find that while the photon--initiated background is dominant at very small momentum transfer, this can be effectively removed by placing a reasonable cut on the transverse momentum of the produced meson. In the case of QCD--initiated production, we show this is in general strongly suppresse…
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 …
The possibility to use the exclusive $pp \to pp ϕ$ and $pp \to pp ϕϕ$ reactions in identifying the odderon exchange is discussed. So far there is no unambiguous experimental evidence for the odderon, the charge conjugation $C = -1$ counterpart of the $C = +1$ pomeron. Recently proposed tensor-pomeron and vector-odderon model for soft high-energy reactions is applied. For the $p p \to p p ϕ$ reaction at high energies the photon-pomeron fusion is the dominant process and the odderon-pomeron fusion is an interesting alternative. Adding odderon exchange improves considerably description of the pro…
Although the Odderon is an unambiguous prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics, its existence still was not confirmed experimentally. One of the processes where the Odderon contribution is expected to be dominant is the diffractive photoproduction of tensor mesons. In this paper we study the diffractive $f_2(1270)$ photoproduction in $pA$ collisions at LHC and RHIC considering the model of the stochastic vacuum to treat the non - perturbative process. We demonstrate that this process dominates the $f_2$ production at mid - rapidities, and large values for the cross section are predicted. Our resu…
We study the rapidity dependence of the cross section on the rapidity of the central exclusive production cross sections of C-even mesons in $pA$ and $AA$ collisions, where $A$ is a heavy ion. We observe qualitatively different behaviour of the contributions arising from $γ$-Odderon and Pomeron-Pomeron fusion mechanisms. This can be used to extract the Odderon signal from the events of $f_2$ mesons exclusively produced in the forward region. Estimates, obtained using expected values of the Odderon cross section, indicate that the $γ$-Odderon contribution may exceed by a few times the Pomeron-i…
We consider exclusive $π^0$ production in ep-scattering. At high energies odderon and photon exchange contribute. The photon exchange contribution is evaluated exactly using data for the total virtual photon-proton absorption cross section. The odderon exchange contribution is calculated in nonperturbative QCD, using functional integral techniques and the model of the stochastic vacuum. For the proton we assume a quark-diquark structure as suggested by the small odderon amplitude in pp and $p \bar{p}$ forward scattering. We show that odderon exchange leads to a much larger inelastic than elast…
There seem to be recently an evidence for $C =$ -1 exchanges in $p p$ and $p \bar p$ elastic scattering at high energies. The analysis there is difficult as the two processes were not measured at the same (large) energies. Here we discuss three different exclusive processes given in the title as a possible source of information for odderon exchange. A sketch of the formalism is presented for each of the reactions. We consider low energy processes measured in the past by the WA102 collaboration and try to make predictions for the LHC. We discuss possible evidences at the low energies and try to…
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…
It is commonly believed that the Sivers function has uniquely to do with processes involving a transversely polarized nucleon. In this paper we show that it is not necessarily the case. We demonstrate that exclusive pion production in $un$polarized electron-proton scattering in the forward region is a direct probe of the gluon Sivers function due to its connection to the QCD Odderon.
In this report diffractive high energy reactions are discussed in a functional integral approach where hadronic amplitudes are calculated from vacuum expectation values of lightlike Wegner-Wilson loops. In the first part we calculate elastic differential cross sections for high energy and small momentum transfer elastic proton-proton (pp) scattering which are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data. In the second part we consider exclusive $π^0$ production in ep-scattering. At high energies photon and odderon exchange contribute to this reaction. We show that odderon exchange leads …
Exclusive pseudoscalar meson production in ep scattering at high energies is a direct probe for a possible "odderon" exchange in soft hadronic processes. Using a simple phenomenological ansatz for the odderon, we demonstrate how it can be separated from the contribution due to photon-photon fusion, and the relevant parameters be measured. Total cross sections and differential distributions are presented for pi0, eta, eta', and eta_c production. Results are given from both a full calculation and one using the equivalent photon approximation. The accuracy of the latter is discussed.
We present a study of the exclusive $pp \to pp K^{+} K^{-} K^{+} K^{-}$ reaction at high energies. We consider diffractive mechanisms with the intermediate $ϕϕ$ state with its decay into the $K^{+} K^{-} K^{+} K^{-}$ system. We include the $ϕ(1020)$ $\hat{t}/\hat{u}$-channel exchanges and the $f_{2}(2340)$ $s$-channel exchange mechanism. This $f_{2}$ state is a candidate for a tensor glueball. We discuss the possibility to use the $pp \to pp ϕϕ$ process in identifying the odderon exchange. An upper limit for the $\mathbb{P} \mathbb{O} ϕ$ coupling is extracted from the WA102 experimental data. …
One of the open questions of the strong interaction theory is the existence of the Odderon, which is an unambiguous prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics, but still not confirmed experimentally. An alternative to probe the Odderon is the exclusive $η_c$ photoproduction in hadronic collisions. As the Pomeron exchange cannot contribute to this process, its observation would indicate the existence of the Odderon. In this paper we estimate the $η_c$ production in photon - induced interactions in hadronic collisions at the AFTER@LHC experiment. We demonstrate that the experimental analysis of this p…
We define and study hard ``semi-exclusive'' processes of the form $A+B \to C + Y$ which are characterized by a large momentum transfer between the particles $A$ and $C$ and a large rapidity gap between the final state particle $C$ and the inclusive system $Y$. Such reactions are in effect generalizations of deep inelastic lepton scattering, providing novel currents which probe specific quark distributions of the target $B$ at fixed momentum fraction. We give explicit expressions for photo- and leptoproduction cross sections such as $γp \to πY$ in terms of parton distributions in the proton and…
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.
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…
The amplitudes for the $p p \to p p π^{0}$ process applicable at high energy are discussed in detail. Both diffractive bremsstrahlung (Drell-Hiida-Deck--type model), photon-photon and photon-omega exchange mechanisms are included in the calculation. Large cross sections of the order of mb are predicted. The corresponding differential cross sections in rapidities and transverse momenta of outgoing protons and pions as well as relative azimuthal angle between outgoing protons are calculated for RHIC and LHC energies. The hadronic bremsstrahlung contributions dominate at large (forward, backward)…
We show that the addition of detectors to tag the outgoing forward protons, at the LHC, will significantly enlarge the potential of studying New Physics. A topical example is Higgs production by the exclusive double-diffractive process, pp -> p+H+p. We discuss the production of Higgs bosons in both the SM and MSSM. We show how the predicted rates may be checked at the Tevatron by observing the exclusive double-diffractive production of dijets, or $χ_c$ or $χ_b$ mesons, or $γγ$ pairs.
Protons and antiprotons at collider energies are a source of high energy Weizsäcker--Williams photons. This may open a possibility to study exclusive photoproduction of heavy vector mesons at energies much larger than possible at the HERA accelerator. Here we present a detailed investigation of the exclusive $J/ψ$ photoproduction in proton-proton (RHIC, LHC) and proton-antiproton (Tevatron) collisions. We calculate several differential distributions in $t_1, t_2, y, ϕ$, as well as transverse momentum distributions of $J/Ψ$'s. We discuss correlations in the azimuthal angle between outgoing prot…
We present a study of exclusive production of $π^{0}$ meson in proton-proton collisions at high energies. Both diffractive bremsstrahlung (Drell-Hiida-Deck type model), photon-photon, photon-omega and photon-odderon exchange mechanisms are included in the calculation. The $π^{0}$-bremsstrahlung contribution dominates at large (forward, backward) pion rapidities and contributes at small $π^0 p$ invariant mass and could be therefore misinterpreted as the Roper resonance $N^{*}(1440)$. Large cross sections of the order of mb are predicted. We predict strong dependence of the slope in $t$ (squared…
Exclusive production of a $η_c$ pseudo-scalar meson in $γ^{(*)} + p \to η_c + p$ scattering at high energies involves a ${\cal C}$-odd exchange in the $t$-channel. We formulate the description of this process within the high-energy framework of eikonal dipole scattering. We obtain expressions for the light-cone wave function of the $η_c$ required in this framework as well as for the ${\cal C}$-odd amplitudes due to exchange of a single photon, of a photon plus two gluons, and of three gluons. We relate these amplitudes to correlators of the $+$ component of the quark current in the light-cone …
In this paper we discuss exclusive reactions which analysis can be used to receive direct indication of diquark existence. We make estimations of diquark scattering process measurement in inelastic proton-proton collisions. It was shown that putting special restrictions over kinematics and particles in final state of process it will be possible to enhance potential diquark contribution to scattering up to $10^4$. We put qualitative characteristics of process with diquark and ways to distinguish it from quark scattering in model-independent way.
We construct a general QCD light front formalism to compute many-body color charge correlators in the proton. These form factors can be extracted from deeply inelastic scattering measurements of exclusive final states in analogy to electromagnetic form factors extracted in elastic electron scattering experiments. Particularly noteworthy is the potential to extract a novel Odderon form factor, either indirectly from exclusive $J/Ψ$ measurements, or directly from exclusive measurements of the $η_c$ or tensor mesons at large Bjorken x. Besides the intrinsic information conveyed by these color cha…
We consider the central exclusive production of the $p\bar{p}$ in the continuum and via resonances in proton-proton collisions at high energies. We discuss the diffractive mechanism calculated within the tensor-pomeron approach including pomeron, odderon, and reggeon exchanges. The theoretical results are discussed in the context of existing WA102 and ISR experimental data and predictions for planned or current experiments at the RHIC and the LHC are presented. The distribution in ${\rm y}_{diff}$, the rapidity distance between proton and antiproton, is particularly interesting. We find a dip …
We investigate the potentialities offered by the study of lepton-pair production in ultraperipheral collisions at a fixed-target experiment using the proton and ion LHC beams. In these collisions, exclusive or semi-exclusive lepton-pair production can be used as luminosity monitor as well as a check of the equivalent-photon approximation, via the measurement of the Bethe-Heitler cross section. It can also serve as a probe of the inner hadron structure via the measurement of the lepton-pair azimuthal asymmetry which is sensitive to the timelike virtual Compton scattering. We also briefly discus…
The existence of an axion-like particle (ALP) would induce anomalous scattering of light by light. This process can be probed at the Large Hadron Collider in central exclusive production of photon pairs in proton-proton collisions by tagging the surviving protons using forward proton detectors. Using a detailed simulation, we estimate the expected bounds on the ALP--photon coupling for a wide range of masses. We show that the proposed search is competitive and complementary to other collider bounds for masses above 600 GeV, especially for resonant ALP production between 600 GeV and 2 TeV. Our …
The large cross section for t-tbar production at the LHC and at any future hadron collider provides a high-statistics and relatively clean environment for a study of W boson properties: after tagging on a leptonic decay of one of the Ws and the two b-jets, an additional W still remains in the event. We study the prospect of making the first exclusive hadronic decay of a fundamental boson of the standard model, using the decay modes W to pi gamma and W to pi pi pi, and other related decays. By using strong isolation criteria, which we impose by searching for jets with a single particle constitu…
In this paper we investigate the $η_c$ production by photon - photon and photon - hadron interactions in $pp$ and $pA$ collisions at the LHC energies. The inclusive and diffractive contributions for the $η_c$ photoproduction are estimated using the nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics (NRQCD) formalism. We estimate the rapidity and transverse momentum distributions for the $η_c$ photoproduction in hadronic collisions at the LHC and present our estimate for the total cross sections at the Run 2 energies. A comparison with the predictions for the exclusive $η_c$ photoproduction, which is a dir…
We study the LHC sensitivity to new broad neutral resonances produced in two-photon fusion and decaying to a top quark pair, $γγ\to t\bar{t}$. This is probed in central exclusive $t\bar{t}$ production in proton-proton collisions, $pp \to p t\bar{t} p$. We use the tagging of the intact protons by PPS (CMS) and AFP (ATLAS) and consider the semi-leptonic $t\bar t$ channel. The sensitivity is also mapped onto a set of dimension-8 $γγt\bar{t}$ operators in the large mass limit. Using the kinematical correlations between the intact protons and the reconstructed $t\bar{t}$ system, we obtain a sensiti…
We show that ultra-peripheral heavy-ion collisions at the LHC can be used to search for axion-like particles with mass below 100 GeV. The $Z^4$ enhanced photon-photon luminosity from the ions provides a large exclusive production rate, with a signature of a resonant pair of back-to-back photons and no other activity in the detector. In addition, we present both new and updated limits from recasting multi-photon searches at LEP II and the LHC, which are more stringent than those currently in the literature for the mass range 100 MeV to 100 GeV.
We discuss the reaction $e p \to e \tilde{p} X$ in the one-photon exchange approximation, where it is in essence the reaction $γ^{*} p \to \tilde{p} X$. A large rapidity gap is required between the particle or particles of the proton remnant $\tilde{p}$ and those of $X$. We define a suitable azimuthal angle $φ$ between a leptonic and a hadronic plane. The dependence of the cross section on $φ$ is given explicitly and can be used to extract cross sections and interference terms for the reaction $γ^{*} p \to \tilde{p} X$ corresponding to the various helicities of the virtual photon $γ^{*}$. The …
The type II seesaw model predicts the existence of a doubly charged Higgs boson ($H ^{\pm\pm}$), which can be produced through the Drell - Yan process and photon -- induced interactions at hadronic colliders. In recent years, such reactions have been largely investigated in inclusive processes, where both incident protons breakup and a large number of particles is produced in addition to the doubly charged Higgs pair. In this paper, we investigate, for the first time, the possibility of searching for $H ^{\pm\pm}$ in exclusive processes, which are characterized by two rapidity gaps and two int…
We investigate the discovery potential of light color-octet bosons in the mass range of 100 - 400 GeV in exclusive top-pair plus jet production at the LHC. We study the impact of such bosons on the incline, the energy and the rapidity asymmetries. We show that light axigluons with large couplings to quarks can be discovered at the LHC with a luminosity of a few inverse fb. Almost all of the considered axigluon parameter space can be probed using the already available 2011/2012 LHC data. In a small-coupling scenario, axigluons could be discovered using the charge asymmetry with 65 inverse fb at…
We study the collider phenomenology of sbottom-bino co-annihilation scenario at both the 7 TeV and 14 TeV LHC. This co-annihilation scenario requires that the NLSP sbottom and LSP bino masses are apart by no more than about 20% or so, and for M_{\tilde{b}_1}>M_b+M_{\tildeχ_1^0}, the sbottom decays exclusively into b+\tildeχ_1^0. We propose a search for sbottom pairs through b\bar{b} plus missing energy. By scanning the mass parameters M_{\tilde{b}_1} and M_{\tildeχ_1^0}, we investigate the discovery limits of sbottom and bino in the M_{\tilde{b}_1}-M_{\tildeχ_1^0} plane with at least 5σsignifi…
We present a model of high energy soft $pp$ interactions that has multi s- and t-channel components, which has been tuned to describe all the available data. The t-channel components allow matching of the soft to the hard (QCD) Pomeron. Absorptive effects are found to be large, and, for example, suppress the prediction of the total $pp$ cross section to about 90 mb at the LHC. We use the model to calculate the survival probability, S^2, of the rapidity gaps in the exclusive process pp \to p+H+p, a process with great advantages for searching for the H \to \bb signal. We consider both eikonal an…
We discuss diffractive processes in proton-proton collisions at small momentum transfers without and with photon radiation. We consider the soft exclusive reactions $pp \to pp$, $p\bar{p} \to p\bar{p}$, and $pp \to pp γ$ within the tensor-pomeron and vector-odderon approach. We compare our results with the data for $pp$ and $p\bar{p}$ total cross sections, for the ratio of real to imaginary part of the forward scattering amplitude, and for the elastic $pp$ cross sections, especially those from TOTEM. To describe the low-energy data more accurately the secondary reggeons must be included. We wr…
