Inclusive production of a pair of hadrons separated by a large interval of rapidity in proton collisions

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework within QCD for describing the inclusive production of hadron pairs separated by large rapidity intervals in proton collisions, providing tools for BFKL resummation at next-to-leading order.

Contribution

It calculates the NLA impact factor for inclusive hadron production, advancing the BFKL approach for high-energy proton collision processes with large rapidity gaps.

Findings

Provides the NLA impact factor for identified hadron production.

Connects the process to Mueller-Navelet jets and BFKL dynamics.

Enables improved theoretical predictions for forward hadron production.

Abstract

We consider within QCD collinear factorization the inclusive process $p+p\to h_1+h_2+X$, where the pair of identified hadrons, $h_1,h_2$, having large transverse momenta is produced in high-energy proton-proton collisions. In particular, we concentrate on the kinematics where the two identified hadrons in the final state are separated by a large interval of rapidity $\Delta y$. In this case the (calculable) hard part of the reaction receives large higher order corrections $\sim \alpha^n_s \Delta y^n$. We provide a theoretical input for the resummation of such contributions with next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy (NLA) in the BFKL approach. Specifically, we calculate in NLA the vertex (impact-factor) for the inclusive production of the identified hadron. This process has much in common with the widely discussed Mueller-Navelet jets production and can be also used to access the BFKL dynamics at proton colliders. Another application of the obtained identified-hadron vertex could be the NLA BFKL description of inclusive forward hadron production in DIS.