2010/11/30 by L. A. Harland-Lang, L. A. Harland‐Lang, V. A. Khoze +3
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-011-1545-1
published as Eur.Phys.J.C71:1545,2011 · 17 pages, 5 figures, version accepted for publication in EPJC
openalex publication_date 2011/02/01 · arxiv created 2011/02/08 · arxiv updated 2011/03/28 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the Central Exclusive Production (CEP) of chicJ and etac mesons at RHIC in proton-proton collisions. We consider the chicJ --> J/psi + gamma decay channels and, recalling that the Jz=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 chic(0,1,2) production. Particular attention is paid to the impact of pt 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 pt2 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, S2. Two- and four-body decays, which are particularly relevant for chic0 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.