Central Diffraction at ALICE

TL;DR

The ALICE experiment is well-equipped to study exclusive central diffractive reactions, enabling detailed QCD research and searches for exotic mesons, with effective detection systems for rapidity gaps and central systems.

Contribution

This paper demonstrates ALICE's suitability for central diffraction studies and evaluates its detector systems for identifying rapidity gaps and central systems in such reactions.

Findings

ALICE can accurately measure low-mass central systems with high purity.

The Forward Multiplicity Detector and Forward Shower Counter effectively detect rapidity gaps.

ALICE's detector setup enables valuable new data collection on central diffractive processes.

Abstract

The ALICE experiment is shown to be well suited for studies of exclusive final states from central diffractive reactions. The gluon-rich environment of the central system allows detailed QCD studies and searches for exotic meson states, such as glueballs, hybrids and new charmonium-like states. It would also provide a good testing ground for detailed studies of heavy quarkonia. Due to its central barrel performance, ALICE can accurately measure the low-mass central systems with good purity. The efficiency of the Forward Multiplicity Detector (FMD) and the Forward Shower Counter (FSC) system for detecting rapidity gaps is shown to be adequate for the proposed studies. With this detector arrangement, valuable new data can be obtained by tagging central diffractive processes.