Searching for Odderon in Central Exclusive Processes at the LHC

Abstract

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 $pp\to pp(\varphi \to K^{+}{K}^{-})$, $pp\to pp(\varphi \to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-})$, and $pp\to pp\varphi \varphi \to pp{K}^{+}{K}^{-}{K}^{+}{K}^{-}$, 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.

Comments: 12 pages, 8 figures, a talk presented at the XXVI Cracow EPIPHANY Conference, LHC Physics: Standard Model and Beyond, 7-10 January 2020