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M. G. Ryskin

Publications and source records attributed to M. G. Ryskin.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Central exclusive meson pair production in the perturbative regime at hadron colliders

The central exclusive production (CEP) of heavy resonance states that subsequently decay into meson pairs, MMbar, is an important signature for such processes at hadron colliders. However there is a potentially important background from the direct QCD production of meson pairs, as mediated for example by the exclusive gg --> MMbar hard scattering subprocess. This is in fact an interesting process in its own right, testing novel aspects of perturbative QCD technology. We explicitly calculate the gg --> MMbar helicity amplitudes for different meson states within the hard exclusive formalism, and comment on the application of MHV techniques to the calculation. Using these results, we describe how meson pair CEP can be calculated in the perturbative regime, and present some sample numerical predictions for a variety of final states. We also briefly consider the dominant non-perturbative contributions, which are expected to be important when the meson transverse momentum is small.

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Probes of multiparticle production at the LHC

We discuss how the main features of high-energy `soft' and `semihard' pp collisions may be described in terms of parton cascades and multi-Pomeron exchange. The interaction between Pomerons produces an effective infrared cutoff, k_{sat}, by the absorption of low k_t partons. This provides the possibility of extending the parton approach, used for `hard' processes, to also describe high-energy soft and semihard interactions. In particular, the presence of the cutoff k_{sat}, which increases with collider energy, means that the production and hadronization of minijets with p_t\gapproxeq k_{sat} are the main source of the soft secondaries. We propose several measurements which can be made at the LHC, that can further illuminate our understanding of the mechanism which drives the soft and semihard interactions. We show that the structure of Pomeron-Pomeron interactions may be studied in Double-Pomeron-Exchange processes and in the p_t distributions of secondaries near the edge of large rapidity gaps. The so-called `ridge effect' is another manifestation of the interaction of two partonic cascades.

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The small x gluon and b\bar{b} production at the LHC

We study open b\bar{b} production at large rapidity at the LHC in an attempt to pin down the gluon distribution at very low x. For the LHC energy of 7 TeV, at next-to-leading order (NLO), there is a large factorization scale uncertainty. We show that the uncertainty can be greatly reduced if events are selected in which the transverse momenta of the two B-mesons balance each other to some accuracy, that is |\vec p_{1T}+\vec p_{2T}| < k_0. This will fix the scale μ_F \simeq k_0, and will allow the LHCb experiment, in particular, to study the x-behaviour of gluon distribution down to x ~ 10^{-5}, at rather low scales, μ~ 2 GeV. We evaluate the expected cross sections using, for illustrative purposes, various recent sets of Parton Distribution Functions.

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Exclusive production of the BSM Higgs bosons at the LHC

We review the prospects for Central Exclusive Production (CEP) of BSM Higgs bosons at the LHC using forward proton detectors proposed to be installed at 220 m and 420 m from the ATLAS and/ or CMS. Results are presented for MSSM in standard benchmark scenarios, in scenarios compatible with the Cold Dark Matter relic abundance and other precision measurements, and for SM with a fourth generation of fermions. We show that CEP can give a valuable information about spin-parity properties of the Higgs bosons.

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Central exclusive meson pair production in the perturbative regime

We present a study of the central exclusive production (CEP) of meson pairs, MMbar, at sufficiently high invariant mass that a perturbative QCD formalism is applicable. Within this framework, MMbar production proceeds via the gg --> MMbar hard scattering sub-process, which can be calculated within the hard exclusive formalism. We present explicit calculations for the gg --> MMbar helicity amplitudes for different meson states and, using these, show results for meson pair CEP in the perturbative regime.

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BSM Higgs Physics in the Exclusive Forward Proton Mode at the LHC

We investigate the prospects for Central Exclusive Diffractive (CED) production of BSM Higgs bosons at the LHC using forward proton detectors installed at 220 m and 420 m distance around ATLAS and / or CMS. We update a previous analysis for the MSSM taking into account improvements in the theoretical calculations and the most recent exclusion bounds from the Tevatron. We extend the MSSM analysis to new benchmark scenarios that are in agreement with the cold dark matter relic abundance and other precision measurements. We analyse the exclusive production of Higgs bosons in a model with a fourth generation of fermions. Finally, we comment on the determination of Higgs spin-parity and coupling structures at the LHC and show that the forward proton mode could provide crucial information on the CP properties of the Higgs bosons.

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High-energy strong interactions: from `hard' to `soft'

We discuss the qualitative features of the recent data on multiparticle production observed at the LHC. The tolerable agreement with Monte Carlos based on LO DGLAP evolution indicates that there is no qualitative difference between `hard' and `soft' interactions; and that a perturbative QCD approach may be extended into the soft domain. However, in order to describe the data, these Monte Carlos need an additional infrared cutoff k_min with a value k_min ~ 2-3 GeV which is not small, and which increases with collider energy. Here we explain the physical origin of the large k_min. Using an alternative model which matches the `soft' high-energy hadron interactions smoothly on to perturbative QCD at small x, we demonstrate that this effective cutoff k_min is actually due to the strong absorption of low k_t partons. The model embodies the main features of the BFKL approach, including the diffusion in transverse momenta, lnk_t, and an intercept consistent with resummed next-to-leading log corrections. Moreover, the model uses a two-channel eikonal framework, and includes the contributions from the multi-Pomeron exchange diagrams, both non-enhanced and enhanced. The values of a small number of physically-motivated parameters are chosen to reproduce the available total, elastic and proton dissociation cross section (pre-LHC) data. Predictions are made for the LHC, and the relevance to ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is briefly discussed. The low x inclusive integrated gluon PDF, and the diffractive gluon PDF, are calculated in this framework, using the parameters which describe the high-energy pp and p\bar{p} `soft' data. Comparison with the PDFs obtained from the global parton analyses of deep inelastic and related `hard' scattering data, and from diffractive deep inelastic data looks encouraging.

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A fresh look at double parton scattering

A revised formula for the inclusive cross section for double parton scattering in terms of the modified collinear two-parton distributions extracted from deep inelastic scattering is suggested. The possible phenomenological issues are discussed.

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Central exclusive quarkonium production with tagged forward protons at RHIC

We study the Central Exclusive Production (CEP) of chi_cJ and eta_c mesons at RHIC in proton-proton collisions. We consider the chi_cJ --> J/psi + gamma decay channels and, recalling that the J_z=0 suppression of the J=1,2 states can be compensated by their larger branchings to J/psi + gamma, present predictions of rates and distributions for chi_c(0,1,2) production. Particular attention is paid to the impact of p_t cuts applied to the outgoing protons, which can influence the relative rates significantly. The distribution in the azimuthal angle difference between the outgoing protons and the proton p_t^2 is also studied, and shown to depend sensitively on the spin and parity of the centrally produced meson, as well as being affected by the soft survival factors, S^2. Two- and four-body decays, which are particularly relevant for chi_c0 production, are also considered. We show that in the two-body case, backgrounds from `direct' QCD production based on both perturbative and non-perturbative models are expected to be under control.

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Pomeron universality from identical pion correlations

Bose-Einstein correlations of identical pions produced in high-energy pp collisions at the LHC allow a probe of the Pomeron exchange mechanism. The size of the domain which emits the pions depends on the multiplicity of events, but not on the collider energy. This confirms the universal structure of Pomeron exchange. The data at relatively low multiplicities indicate that the size of the source created by one-Pomeron exchange is much less than the size of the proton.

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Universal properties of particle production in the soft limit p_T -> 0

The momentum spectra of particles in different high energy processes, such as e^+e^- annihilation, pp and nuclear collisions in the limit p,p_T -> 0 exhibit similar properties because of the dominant role of coherent soft gluon bremsstrahlung. We observe the following general features: the inclusive particle density approaches a limiting behaviour and becomes independent of primary collision energy; furthermore, it becomes proportional to the QCD colour factors C_A,C_F which appear in the Born term for the respective minimal partonic processes. In this limit, nuclear collisions reach with good accuracy participant (``wounded nucleon'') scaling. Particle ratios in the low momentum region display a universal behaviour. Future measurements at the LHC will provide crucial tests for the contributions from additional incoherent multi-component processes.

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Forward Physics at the LHC, Detecting Elastic pp Scattering by Radiative Photons

Photon bremsstrahlung is proposed to be used to identify elastic proton-proton interactions at the LHC. In addition to a measurement of the elastic pp cross section (assuming that the elastic slope is known), the bremsstrahlung photons will allow the evaluation of the total pp cross section, luminosity and to align the Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs).

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Central Diffractive Processes at the Tevatron, RHIC and LHC

Central exclusive production (CEP) processes in high-energy hadron collisions offer a very promising framework for studying both novel aspects of QCD and new physics signals. We report on the results of a theoretical study of the CEP of heavy quarkonia (chi and eta) at the Tevatron, RHIC and LHC. These processes provide important information on the physics of bound states and can probe the current ideas and methods of QCD, such as effective field theories and lattice QCD.

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A note on rapidity distributions at the LHC

We discuss the difference between the distribution of secondaries measured in terms of pseudorapidity and that using the correct rapidity variable. We show a set of examples obtained using Monte Carlo simulations. We also consider the production of particles of low transverse momentum where coherence effects may occur, which are not yet included in the present Monte Carlos.

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An independent estimate of the triple-Pomeron coupling

The value of the important triple-Pomeron coupling is estimated by an unorthodox procedure using the known diffractive parton distribution functions. The result is g_{3P}\simeq 0.2g_N, where g_N is the Pomeron-nucleon coupling. This is in excellent agreement with an independent determination, g_{3P}\simeq 0.2g_N, previously obtained by analysing the available data in the triple-Regge region with absorptive effects taken into account.

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