$\eta_c$ production in photon - induced interactions at the AFTER@LHC experiment as a probe of the Odderon

TL;DR

This paper proposes using exclusive $$ photoproduction in hadronic collisions at AFTER@LHC to unambiguously detect the Odderon, a fundamental but unconfirmed prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed estimate of $$ production via photon-induced interactions at AFTER@LHC as a novel method to probe the Odderon.

Findings

Feasibility of detecting $$ production at AFTER@LHC.

Observation of $$ would confirm the Odderon.

Provides experimental signatures for Odderon detection.

Abstract

One of the open questions of the strong interaction theory is the existence of the Odderon, which is an unambiguous prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics, but still not confirmed experimentally. An alternative to probe the Odderon is the exclusive $\eta_c$ photoproduction in hadronic collisions. As the Pomeron exchange cannot contribute to this process, its observation would indicate the existence of the Odderon. In this paper we estimate the $\eta_c$ production in photon - induced interactions in hadronic collisions at the AFTER@LHC experiment. We demonstrate that the experimental analysis of this process is feasible in the AFTER@LHC experiment and that the observation of the $\eta_c$ production in nuclear collisions is a unambiguous signature of the Odderon.