Charm and bottom production in inclusive double Pomeron exchange in heavy ion collisions at the LHC

Abstract

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.

Comments: 7 pages, 3 tables. Final version to be published in Physical Review C