Survival probability for exclusive central diffractive production of colorless states at the LHC

E. Gotsman; H. Kowalski; E. Levin; U. Maor; A. Prygarin

doi:10.1140/epjc/s2006-02600-1

EPJ

Survival probability for exclusive central diffractive production of colorless states at the LHC

E. Gotsman¹, H. Kowalski², E. Levin¹, U. Maor¹ and A. Prygarin¹^*

¹ Department of Particle Physics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel
² ZEUS Collaboration, DESY, 22603, Hamburg, Germany

Received: 20 December 2005
Revised: 9 May 2006
Published online: 21 July 2006

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the survival probability for exclusive central diffractive production of a colorless small size system at the LHC. This process has the clear signature of two large rapidity gaps. Using the eikonal approach for the description of soft interactions, we predict the value of the survival probability to be about 5∼6% for single channel models, while for a two channel model the survival probability is about 3%. The dependence of the survival probability factor (damping factor) on the transverse momenta of the recoiled protons is discussed, and we suggest that it be measured at the Tevatron so as to minimize the possible ambiguity in the calculation of the survival probability at the LHC.