Eur. Phys. J. C 69, 179-199 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-010-1404-5

Standard candle central exclusive processes at the Tevatron and LHC

¹ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, J.J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK
² Department of Physics and Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, University of Durham, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK
³ School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
⁴ Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, St. Petersburg, 188300, Russia

lh367@cam.ac.uk

Received: 8 May 2010
Revised: 9 July 2010
Published online: 13 August 2010

Abstract

Central exclusive production (CEP) processes in high-energy proton—(anti)proton collisions offer a very promising framework within which to study both novel aspects of QCD and new physics signals. Among the many interesting processes that can be studied in this way, those involving the production of heavy (c,b) quarkonia and γ γ states have sufficiently well understood theoretical properties and sufficiently large cross sections that they can serve as ‘standard candle’ processes with which we can benchmark predictions for new physics CEP at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Motivated by the broad agreement with theoretical predictions of recent CEP measurements at the Fermilab Tevatron, we perform a detailed quantitative study of heavy quarkonia (χ and η) and γ γ production at the Tevatron, RHIC and LHC, paying particular attention to the various uncertainties in the calculations. Our results confirm the rich phenomenology that these production processes offer at present and future high-energy colliders.