Pomeron-pomeron scattering

TL;DR

This paper investigates the production of meson resonances, including potential glueballs, via pomeron-pomeron scattering in central exclusive diffractive processes, predicting resonance properties and the impact of a non-linear pomeron trajectory at high energies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel non-linear pomeron trajectory model that predicts resonance widths and the production cross section for glueball candidates in diffractive scattering.

Findings

Resonances with vacuum quantum numbers are produced on the pomeron trajectory.

The non-linear trajectory predicts increasing widths for higher resonances.

Pomeron exchange dominates in forward scattering at LHC energies.

Abstract

Central exclusive diffractive (CED) production of meson resonances potentially is a factory producing new particles, in particular a glueball. The produced resonances lie in trajectories with vacuum quantum numbers, essentially on the pomeron trajectory. A tower of resonance recurrences, the production cross section and the resonances widths are predicted. A new feature is the form of the non-linear pomeron trajectory, producing resonances (glueballs) with increasing widths. At LHC energies, in the nearly forward direction the $t$-channel both in elastic, single or double diffraction dissociation as well as in CED is dominated by pomeron exchange (the role of secondary trajectories is negligible, however a small contribution from the odderon may be present).