Exclusive meson pair production in proton-proton collisions

Abstract

We present a study of the exclusive production of meson pairs in the four-body $pp\to pp{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$, $pp{K}^{+}{K}^{-}$ reactions at high energies which constitute an irreducible background to resonance states (e.g. $\varphi$, $f_2(1270)$, $f_0(1500)$, $f_2^{\prime }(1525)$, ${\chi }_{c0}$). We consider central diffractive contribution mediated by Pomeron and Reggeon exchanges and new diffractive mechanism of emission of pions/kaons from the proton lines. We include absorption effects due to proton-proton interaction and pion/kaon rescattering. Predictions for the total cross section and differential distributions in pion/kaon rapidity and transverse momentum as well as two-pion/kaon invariant mass are presented for the RHIC, Tevatron and LHC colliders. Finally we consider a measurement of exclusive production of a scalar ${\chi }_{c0}$ meson via ${\chi }_{c0}\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$, $K^{+}{K}^{-}$ decay.

Comments: 4 pp., 4 figures, talk presented by PL at MESON2012 - 12th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction, Krakow, Poland, 31 May - 5 June 2012