Hard Pomeron-Odderon interference effects in the production of pi^+pi^- pairs in high energy gamma-gamma collisions at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential to observe the perturbative Odderon through charge asymmetries in pi+ pi- pair production in high-energy gamma-gamma collisions at the LHC, highlighting expected event rates and experimental feasibility.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed estimation of charge asymmetries and event rates for pi+ pi- production via photon-photon collisions at the LHC, aiming to detect the perturbative Odderon.

Findings

Sizable charge asymmetries are expected at .2 GeV gamma-gamma energies.

Proton-proton collisions offer high event rates due to large gamma-gamma luminosity.

Ultraperipheral ion-ion collisions provide cleaner signals with reduced background.

Abstract

We estimate the production of two meson pairs in high energy photon photon collisions produced in ultraperipheral collisions at LHC. We show that the study of charge asymmetries may reveal the existence of the perturbative Odderon and discuss the concrete event rates expected at the LHC. Sizable rates and asymmetries are expected in the case of proton-proton collisions and medium values of gamma-gamma energies \sqrt{s_{\gamma \gamma}} \approx 20GeV. Proton-proton collisions will benefit from a high rate due to a large effective gamma-gamma luminosity and ion-ion collisions with a somewhat lower rate from the possibility to trigger on ultraperipheral collisions and a reduced background from strong interactions.