Rapidity gap survival in the black-disk regime

TL;DR

This paper examines how the approach to the black-disk regime at TeV energies affects the probability of maintaining rapidity gaps in exclusive hard diffraction processes in proton-proton collisions, highlighting significant suppression effects.

Contribution

It introduces a partonic description of rapidity gap survival in the black-disk regime, accounting for soft and hard spectator interactions and their correlations, which reduces survival probability estimates.

Findings

Suppression of diffraction at small impact parameters due to soft spectator interactions.

Further suppression from inelastic interactions of hard spectator partons.

Hard spectator interactions significantly lower the survival probability at LHC energies.

Abstract

We summarize how the approach to the black--disk regime (BDR) of strong interactions at TeV energies influences rapidity gap survival in exclusive hard diffraction pp--> p + H + p (H =dijet, \bar Q Q, Higgs). Employing a recently developed partonic description of such processes, we discuss (a) the suppression of diffraction at small impact parameters by soft spectator interactions in the BDR; (b) further suppression by inelastic interactions of hard spectator partons in the BDR; (c) effects of correlations between hard and soft interactions, as suggested by various models of proton structure (color fluctuations, spatial correlations of partons). Hard spectator interactions in the BDR substantially reduce the rapidity gap survival probability at LHC energies compared to previously reported estimates.