Semiexclusive production of vector mesons in proton-proton collisions with electromagnetic dissociation

TL;DR

This paper calculates and compares the distributions of vector mesons produced in proton-proton collisions, considering both exclusive and semi-exclusive processes involving electromagnetic dissociation, and analyzes how these contributions vary with meson type and kinematic variables.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed calculation of semi-exclusive vector meson production including electromagnetic dissociation, accounting for transverse photon momentum and comparing different mesons and kinematic conditions.

Findings

Semi-exclusive processes contribute significantly depending on meson mass.

The ratio of semi-exclusive to exclusive production varies with meson type and kinematic variables.

Electromagnetic dissociation effects are quantitatively characterized for different vector mesons.

Abstract

We calculate distributions of different vector mesons in purely exclusive ($p p \to p p V$) and semi-exclusive ($p p \to p X V$) processes with electromagnetic dissociation of a proton. The cross section for the electromagnetic dissociation is expressed through electromagnetic structure functions of the proton. We include the transverse momentum distribution of initial photons in the associated flux. Contributions of the exclusive and semi-exclusive processes are compared for different vector mesons ($V = \phi, J/\psi, \Upsilon$). We discuss how the relative contribution of the semi-exclusive processes depends on the mass of the vector meson as well as on different kinematical variables of the vector meson ($y$, $p_t$). The ratio of semi-exclusive to exclusive contributions are shown and compared for different mesons in different variables.