Diffractive heavy flavour production at the Tevatron and the LHC

We give predictions for diffractive heavy flavour production at the Tevatron and the LHC in leading-order approximation. In the framework of these studies we use three different models for the partonic structure of the Pomeron recently proposed by Stirling and Kunszt. These Pomeron models are, despite being fitted to the same diffractive deep inelastic HERA data, very different in their parton content and taken together provide a powerful tool to probe the structure of the Pomeron. All models satisfy GLAP evolution and show a significant Q₂ dependence. We give numerical predictions for single as well as double diffractive cross sections assuming a Donnachie-Landshoff-type Pomeron flux factor.     

The diffractive component of multihadron production processes at high energies

Multihadron production at high energies proceeds through two mechanisms: A nondiffractive mechanism of a general multiperipheral nature and a diffractive mechanism. Assuming that the diffractive mechanism is dominated at present energies (s < 3000 BeV²) by single diffraction excitation we explore its theoretical and phenomenological implications. In particular we study the question of the rising total cross section. We show that “high mass diffraction excitation” leads to the formation of a central plateau in the inclusive single pion distribution and that the height of this plateau rises with energy and obeys scaling when normalized by the total cross section. We compute the multiplicity distribution for the diffractive component, and deduce the properties of the average multiplicity, its moments, and the statistical mechanics analogue of the “diffractive” Feynman gas. Two-particle correlations are computed and shown to be of a long range nature. Finally we outline an “improved” two component model into which some of the detailed features of the diffractive part are incorporated.     

Diffraction dissociation at the CERN pulsedpp collider at c.m. Energies of 900 and 200 GeV

Cross-sections for diffractive particle production and pseudorapidity distributions of the decay products of diffractive states are presented. The data were obtained with the UA 5 streamer chamber detector at the CERNpp Collider operated in a new pulsed mode yieldingpp interactions at c.m. energies of 900 and 200 GeV. Data recorded with a special trigger designed to select a sample of events enriched in single-diffractive interactions clearly favour ap _t -limited fragmentation of diffractive states. The cross-section for single-diffractive particle production ? was found to be 7.8±0.5±1.1 mb at 900 GeV and 4.8±0.5±0.8 mb at 200 GeV (first error statistical, second systematic). From the pseudorapidity distribution of diffractive states we deduce the average number of charged particles to be 6.5±1.0 at 900 GeV and 4.1±1.1 at 200 GeV. Furthermore we report on our estimates for the cross-section of double-diffractive particle production at both Collider energies.     

Exclusive double diffractive events: general framework and prospects

We consider the general theoretical framework to study exclusive double diffractive events (EDDE). It is a powerful tool to explore the picture of the pp interaction. Basic kinematical and dynamical properties of the process, and also normalization of parameters via standard processes like the exclusive vector meson production (EVMP), are considered in detail. As an example, calculations of the cross-sections in the model with three pomerons for the process p+p→p+M+p are presented for Tevatron and LHC energies.     

Scale breaking at smallx: Charm production

Scale breaking at smallx is duscussed in the context of Generalised Vector Dominance models. It is shown to be naturally described by such models for allQ ², provided that both charm production, and the diffractive rise of the real photoabsorption cross section, are taken into account.     

ψψ production and limits on beauty meson production from 400 GeV/c protons

From a study of multimuon events obtained in a high luminosity proton-platinum experiment at 400 GeV/c, we find 5 ± 4ψψ events, which correspond to a production cross section σ(ψψ = 27 ± 10 pb. The observed production is compared to the ψψ events previously found in the same apparatus from incoming π^?; a comparison with QCD predictions is performed, giving a good agreement with expectations from gluon-gluon fusion. Finally, using like-sign dimuon, trimuon and quadrimuon events, we give model-dependent upper limits on beauty meson production: 2 nb/nucleon for central models, 20 nb/nucleon for diffractive production.     

Roles of survival probability and barrier reduction in heavy ion fusion induced by break up

Shadowing effects in deep-inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering probe the mass spectrum of diffractive leptoproduction from individual nucleons. We explore this relationship using current experimental information on both processes. In recent data from the NMC and E665 collaboration, taken at small x ? 0.1 and Q ² ? 1 GeV ², shadowing is dominated by the diffractive excitation and coherent interaction of low mass vector mesons. If shadowing is explored at small x ? 0.1 but large Q ² ? 1 GeV ² as discussed at HERA, the situation is different. Here dominant contributions come from the coherent interaction of diffractively produced heavy mass states. Furthermore we observe that the energy dependence of shadowing is directly related to the mass dependence of the diffractive production cross section for free nucleon targets.     

J/\psi +{\mathrm{jet}} diffractive production in the direct photon process at HERA

We present a study of the diffractive production in direct photon processes at HERA based on the factorization theorem for lepton-induced hard diffractive scattering and the factorization formalism of the non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) for quarkonia production. Using the diffractive gluon distribution function extracted from HERA data on diffractive deep inelastic scattering and diffractive dijet photon production, we demonstrate that this process is measurable at DESY HERA. The experimental study of this process can give valuable insight in the diffractive production mechanism and test the color-octet mechanism for heavy quarkonia production in a new environment. Received: 13 September 1999 / Revised version: 31 December 1999 / Published online: 6 April 2000     

Diffraction dissociation,the deck mechanism and diffractive resonance production

We have constructed a model amplitude for the diffractive production of resonant states in the presence of Deck amplitudes: rescattering corrections to the Deck amplitudes are included. We have found that gross distortion of the resonance may occur and also that the phase of the diffractively produced system may vary very slowly, despite the existence of resonances: the only requirement is that the phase of the Deck amplitude leads the production phase of the resonance by ≈40°. Our model simultaneously accommodates the well established lack of phase variation in the diffractively produced 1⁺ s-wave (A1) ?π system and the details of the variation of intensity with mass, with resonance parameters M_A1 ≈ 1.3 GeV/c² and Γ_A1 ≈ 240 MeV/c². The analogous Kππ (Q) diffractive enhancement fits satisfactorily into the same framework. Our model also accounts for a number of features of diffractive N¹ production.     

Spin dependence of deep inelastic diffraction

Using a perturbative model for diffractive interactions, we derive an expression for the polarized diffractive structure function in the high energy limit. This structure function is given by the interference of diffractive amplitudes with polarized and unpolarized exchanges. For the polarized exchange we consider both two-gluon and quark-antiquark amplitudes. The polarized diffractive amplitude receives sizable contributions from non-strongly ordered regions in phase space, resulting in a double logarithmic enhancement at small x. The resummation of these double logarithmic terms is outlined. We also discuss the transition from our perturbative expression to the nonperturbative region. A first numerical estimate indicates that the perturbative contribution to the spin asymmetry is substantially larger than the nonperturbative one. Received: 7 July 1999 / Published online: 14 October 1999     

The nonforward QCD ladder diagrams

We extend the standard analysis of the QCD planar ladder diagrams to the nonforward direction. Results are used for calculating exclusive and semiinclusive cross sections of diffractive photoproduction in the small-x region ofep-collisions. As an example we estimate the event rate for diffractive photoproduction of the neutral vector boson at Hera energies.     

High-mass diffraction and Regge behavior of total cross sections

We consider a modified two-component model of particle production in which diffractive excitation into high mass states gives a contribution to K^±p, π^±p and pp total cross sections of sufficient magnitude and with the proper associated threshold to be a possible explanation of deviations of σ_tot from Regge pole model fits at Serpukhov energies. We present tests of the model. for K⁺p scattering by extrapolating σ_tot to National Accelerator Laboratory energies and by calculating the high mass diffraction contribution to the forward peak in inclusive reactions. The consistency of this scheme is discussed in relation to the pomeron intercept and the form of the triple-pomeron coupling.     

Could saturation effects be visible in a future electron–ion collider?

We expect to observe parton saturation in a future electron–ion collider. In this Letter we discuss this expectation in more detail considering two different models which are in good agreement with the existing experimental data on nuclear structure functions. In particular, we study the predictions of saturation effects in electron–ion collisions at high energies, using a generalization for nuclear targets of the b-CGC model, which describes the ep HERA quite well. We estimate the total, longitudinal and charm structure functions in the dipole picture and compare them with the predictions obtained using collinear factorization and modern sets of nuclear parton distributions. Our results show that inclusive observables are not very useful in the search for saturation effects. In the small x region they are very difficult to disentangle from the predictions of the collinear approaches. This happens mainly because of the large uncertainties in the determination of the nuclear parton distribution functions. On the other hand, our results indicate that the contribution of diffractive processes to the total cross section is about 20% at large A   and small Q²$Q^2$, allowing for a detailed study of diffractive observables. The study of diffractive processes becomes essential to observe parton saturation.     

Drell–Yan diffraction: breakdown of QCD factorization

We consider the diffractive Drell–Yan process in proton–(anti)proton collisions at high energies in the color dipole approach. The calculations are performed at forward rapidities of the leptonic pair. The effect of eikonalization of the universal “bare” dipole–target elastic amplitude in the saturation regime takes into account the principal part of the gap survival probability. We present predictions for the total and differential cross sections of the single-diffractive lepton-pair production at RHIC and LHC energies. We analyze implications of the QCD factorization breakdown in the diffractive Drell–Yan process, which is caused by a specific interplay of the soft and hard interactions, resulting in rather unusual properties of the corresponding observables.     

Diffractive open charm production at HERA

We use perturbative QCD to calculate the cross sections σ^LT for the diffractive production of open charm (cc) from longitudinally and transversely polarised photons (of virtuality Q2) incident at high energy (√S) on a proton target. We study both the Q ² and M ² dependence of the cross sections, where M is the invariant mass of the cc pair. Surprisingly, the result for σ^T, as well as for σ^L, is perturbatively stable. We estimate higher-order corrections and find a sizeable enhancement of the cross sections. The cross sections depend on the square of the gluon density g(x, K²), and we show that the observation of open charm at the HERA electron-proton collider can act as a sensitive probe of the gluon distribution for x = (Q ² + M ²)/s and scale K2 = (M ²c + )(1 + Q ²/M ²) where the average quark transverse momentum squared 〈k ₂ ^t ~ (M ²c . As compared to diffractive J/#x03C8; production, open charm has the advantage that it is independent of the non-perturbative ambiguities arising from the J/#x03C8; wave function. We estimate the fraction of diffractive events that arise from cc¯ production.     

Diffractive production of dijets at HERA

We investigate the production of a quark-antiquark pair in diffractive photon-proton scattering, approximating soft pomeron exchange by the exchange of two nonperturbative gluons. In deep inelastic scattering at HERA, events with two jets and the scattered proton in the final state are predicted to be observable, with an important contribution from charm production. For photoproduction of light quark jets with high transverse momentum we find that both exchanged gluons must have a large invariant mass, so that the cross section is very small, whereas for charm quarks it is quite appreciable. From our calculation we also extract the quark structure function of the pomeron for the scaling variablez no too close to 0 or 1, finding a strong flavour dependence and a behaviour somewhat harder thanz(1?z) for light quarks.     

Bethe-Salpeter equations forq $$\bar q$$ andqqq systems in the instantaneous approximation

We consider a model for elastic scattering and inelastic diffractive production at high energy, which is inspired by Quantum Chromodynamics. The pomeron arises in our model from gluon exchange between quark constituents. The color-neutrality of each hadron implies strong cancellations among the gluon exchanges. Hence our model is “subtractive”, in contrast to the old “additive” quark model. The subtractive model provides a natural explanation for the large cross section which is observed for diffractive dissociation. We show that multiple gluon exchange contributes significantly, alongside two gluon exchange, in building the pomeron.     

A study of A2 and g resonance production in π−p→K−K0p

We present the results and the analysis of a high-statistics experiment to study A₂ and g production in the reaction π^?p→K^?K_S⁰p at 10 GeV/c. In each resonance region we perform a moment analysis of the data, and from the moments we determine the production amplitudes as a function of t. We find A₂ production proceeds dominantly by natural-parity (pomeron and f) exchange. We compare A₂ and diffractive K¹ (1420) production. We find g production proceeds by π and ω exchanges; we determine the $\text{g}\text{→}\text{K}\text{K}$ branching ratio.