Towards a complete study of central exclusive production of $K^{+}K^{-}$ pairs in proton-proton collisions within the tensor Pomeron approach

TL;DR

This paper investigates the central exclusive production of K+K- pairs in high-energy proton-proton collisions using the tensor Pomeron approach, considering various resonances and mechanisms, and providing predictions for RHIC and LHC experiments.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive tensor Pomeron model for K+K- production, including resonant and non-resonant mechanisms, with detailed predictions for experimental observables.

Findings

Predicted differential distributions for K+K- pairs.

Analyzed the impact of experimental cuts on cross sections.

Compared contributions of different resonances and mechanisms.

Abstract

We present a study of the central exclusive production of the $K^{+} K^{-}$ pairs in proton-proton collisions at high energies. We consider diffractive mechanisms including the $K^{+} K^{-}$ continuum, the dominant scalar $f_{0}(980)$, $f_{0}(1500)$, $f_{0}(1710)$ and tensor $f_{2}(1270)$, $f'_{2}(1525)$ resonances decaying into the $K^{+} K^{-}$ pairs. We include also photoproduction mechanisms for the non-resonant (Drell-S\"{o}ding) and the $\phi(1020)$ resonance contributions. The theoretical results are calculated within the tensor-pomeron approach including both pomeron and reggeon exchanges. Predictions for planned or current experiments at RHIC and LHC are presented. We discuss the influence of the experimental cuts on the integrated cross section and on various differential distributions for outgoing particles. The distributions in two-kaon invariant mass, in a special `glueball filter variable', as well as examples of angular distributions in the $K^{+}K^{-}$ rest frame are presented. We compare the $\phi(1020)$ and continuum photoproduction contributions to the $f_{0}(980)$ and continuum diffractive contributions and discuss whether the $\phi(1020)$ resonance could be extracted experimentally. For the determination of some model parameters we also include a discussion of $K$-nucleon scattering, in particular total cross sections, and of $\phi(1020)$ photoproduction.