pion+pion- decays of the f0(1370) scalar glueball candidate in pp Central Exclusive Production experiments

TL;DR

This paper investigates the decay properties of the f0(1370) scalar meson in proton-proton central exclusive production, highlighting its decay channels and suggesting its high glueball content based on experimental observations.

Contribution

It provides new experimental evidence of f0(1370) decays in pp CEP and discusses its potential as a source of scalar mesons with high glueball content.

Findings

f0(1370) decays observed as a peak between 1.1 and 1.6 GeV

High glue content inferred for f0(1370)

Proposes LHC and forward detectors for further studies

Abstract

The study of the properties of pion pairs emitted in pp Central Production Experiments (CEP) shows that a) scalar and tensor mesons production dominates at increasing energies and that 2++ production is suppressed by selecting events with low four momentum transfer square -t at both proton vertices and b) pion+pion- decays of the f0(1370) meson are directly observable as an isolated peak over a vanishing background between 1.1 and 1.6 GeV in measurements at high energies and low -t. Together with the measurements of the decay branching ratios of the f0(1370) into sigma sigma, rho rho, pion pion, Kaon antiKaon, eta eta from pbar annihilation at rest, these observations point at a high glue content of the f0(1370) and suggest that LHC and central detectors supplemented by precision forward detectors installed in roman pots could be used as a unique clean source of all the low energy scalars.