Searches for QCD instantons with forward proton tagging

Marek Tasevsky; Valery Khoze; Daniel Milne; Michail Ryskin

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11178-7

2022 Impact factor 4.4

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2023) 83: 35
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11178-7

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Searches for QCD instantons with forward proton tagging

Marek Tasevsky¹^a, Valery Khoze², Daniel Milne² and Michail Ryskin³

¹ Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Slovance 1999/2, 18221, Prague, Czech Republic
² Department of Physics, University of Durham, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK
³ Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, NRC “Kurchatov Institute”, Gatchina, 188300, St. Petersburg, Russia

^a Marek.Tasevsky@cern.ch

Received: 9 September 2022
Accepted: 30 December 2022
Published online: 18 January 2023

Abstract

We study the possibility to observe heavy ( GeV) QCD instantons at the LHC in events with one or two tagged leading protons including fast simulation of detector and pile-up effects. We show that the expected instanton signal in a single-tagged configuration is strongly affected by central detector and pile-up effects. For double-tagged approach, where larger integrated luminosities and hence larger pile-up contaminations need to be considered, the combinatorial background overwhelms the expected signal. We suggest that additional time information about tracks at central and forward rapidities would be crucial for potential improvements.

© The Author(s) 2023

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