Probing the dilaton in central exclusive processes at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential to detect a dilaton particle, predicted in certain beyond Standard Model theories, through exclusive processes at the LHC, focusing on Pomeron and photon interactions with intact protons.

Contribution

It provides the first estimates of dilaton production via exclusive Pomeron-Pomeron and photon-photon interactions at the LHC, linking observable signals to the dilaton's mass and conformal scale.

Findings

Dilaton production is feasible in exclusive processes if its mass exceeds twice the W boson mass.

Pomeron-Pomeron interactions can help determine the dilaton's mass and conformal energy scale.

Results suggest new avenues for dilaton detection at the LHC.

Abstract

The existence of a dilaton as a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson in spontaneous breaking of scale symmetry is predicted in beyond standard model theories in which electroweak symmetry is broken via strongly coupled conformal dynamics. Such a particle is expected to have a mass below the conformal symmetry breaking scale $f$ and couplings to standard model particles similar to those of the SM Higgs boson. In this paper we estimate, for the first time, the dilaton production in exclusive processes considering Pomeron - Pomeron ($\pom \pom$) and photon - photon ($\gamma \gamma$) interactions, which are characterized by two rapidity gaps and intact hadrons in the final state. Our results indicate that if the dilaton is massive ($M_{\chi} \ge 2 M_W$), the study of dilaton production by $\pom \pom$ interactions in $pp$ collisions can be useful to determine its mass and the conformal energy scale.