Single-diffractive production of charmed mesons at the LHC within the $k_t$-factorization approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel $k_t$-factorization approach for single diffractive production of charm quarks at the LHC, providing new cross section calculations and feasibility analysis for experimental detection.

Contribution

First application of $k_t$-factorization to diffractive processes, deriving transverse momentum dependent distributions from collinear PDFs, and comparing results with standard methods.

Findings

$k_t$-factorization yields larger cross sections than collinear approach.

Significant differences in differential distributions between methods.

Feasibility of measuring diffractive charm production at LHC with current detectors.

Abstract

We discuss the single diffractive production of $c \bar c$ pairs and charmed mesons at the LHC. For a first time we propose a $k_t$-factorization approach to the diffractive processes. The transverse momentum dependent diffractive parton distributions are obtained from standard (collinear) diffractive parton distributions used in the literature. In this calculation the transverse momentum of the pomeron is neglected with respect to transverse momentum of partons entering the hard process. We also perform the first evaluation of the cross sections at the LHC using the diffractive transverse momentum dependent parton distributions. The results of the new approach are compared with those of the standard collinear one. Significantly larger cross sections are obtained in the $k_t$-factorization approach where some part of higher-order effects is effectively included. The differences between corresponding differential distributions are discussed. Finally, we present a feasibility study of the process at the LHC using proton tagging technique. The analysis suggests that the measurement of single diffractive charm production is possible using ATLAS and CMS/TOTEM detectors.