Exclusive photoproduction of $J/ψ$ in proton-proton and proton-antiproton scattering

Abstract

Protons and antiprotons at collider energies are a source of high energy Weizsäcker--Williams photons. This may open a possibility to study exclusive photoproduction of heavy vector mesons at energies much larger than possible at the HERA accelerator. Here we present a detailed investigation of the exclusive $J/ψ$ photoproduction in proton-proton (RHIC, LHC) and proton-antiproton (Tevatron) collisions. We calculate several differential distributions in $t_1, t_2, y, ϕ$, as well as transverse momentum distributions of $J/Ψ$'s. We discuss correlations in the azimuthal angle between outgoing protons or proton and antiproton as well as in the ($t_1, t_2$) space. Differently from electroproduction experiments, here both colliding beam particles can be a source of photons, and we find large interference terms in azimuthal angle distributions in a broad range of rapidities of the produced meson. We also include the spin--flip parts in the electromagnetic vertices. We discuss the effect of absorptive corrections on various distributions. Interestingly, absorption corrections induce a charge asymmetry in rapidity distributions, and are larger for $p p$ reactions than for the $p \bar p$ case. The reaction considered here constitutes an important nonreduceable background in recently proposed searches for odderon exchange.