Central exclusive production of pion pairs in proton-(anti)proton collisions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the exclusive production of pion pairs in high-energy proton-proton and proton-antiproton collisions, incorporating new absorption corrections and comparing predictions with experimental data from STAR and CDF, with forecasts for LHC experiments.

Contribution

It introduces additional absorption corrections in the Lebiedowicz-Szczurek model and analyzes their impact on pion pair production predictions at high energies.

Findings

Absorption corrections significantly affect cross-section predictions.

Model predictions align well with STAR and CDF experimental results.

Provides detailed differential distributions for future LHC measurements.

Abstract

We present results for exclusive $p p \to p p \pi^+ \pi^-$ or $p \bar p \to p \bar p \pi^+ \pi^-$ processes at high energies. We discuss the role of new additional absorption corrections in the non-resonant Lebiedowicz-Szczurek model mediated by the pomeron and reggeon exchanges. We discuss also the role of the $\rho^{0}$ and the Drell-S\"oding photoproduction mechanism. We compare our predictions with recent experimental results obtained by the STAR and CDF Collaborations. We present predictions for the ALICE, ATLAS and CMS experiments. Differential distributions in invariant two-pion mass and two-dimensional distributions in proton-proton relative azimuthal angle and transverse momentum of one of the protons are presented.