Diffractive exclusive production of Higgs boson and heavy quark pairs at high energy proton-proton collisions

Abstract

We discuss exclusive double diffractive (EDD) production of Higgs boson and heavy quark - heavy antiquark pairs at high energies. Differential distributions for $c\bar{c}$ at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.96 GeV and for $b\bar{b}$ at $\sqrt{s}$ = 14 TeV are shown and discussed. Irreducible leading-order $b\bar{b}$ background to Higgs production is calculated in several kinematical variables. The signal-to-background ratio is shown and several improvements are suggested by imposing cuts on $b$ ($\bar{b}$) transverse momenta and rapidities.

Comments: 4 pages, 5 figures, invited talk at QCHS IX, Madrid, August 30th, September 3rd