Diffractive production of two rho^0_L mesons in e^+e^- collisions

Abstract

We present an estimate of the cross-section for the exclusive production of a rho_L^0-meson pair in e^+e^- scattering, which will be studied in the future high energy International Linear Collider. For this aim, we complete calculations of the Born order approximation of the amplitudes gamma^*_{L,T}(Q_1^2) gamma^*_{L,T}(Q_2^2) -> rho_L^0 rho_L^0, for arbitrary polarization of virtual photons and longitudinally polarized mesons, in the kinematical region s >> -t, Q_1^2, Q_2^2. These processes are completely calculable in the hard region Q_1^2, Q_2^2 >> Lambda^2_{QCD} and we perform most of the calculations in an analytical way. The resulting cross-section turns out to be large enough for this process to be measurable with foreseen luminosity and energy, for Q_1^2 and Q_2^2 in the range of a few GeV^2.

Comments: 38 pages, 20 figures, LATEX