Exclusive dilepton production at forward rapidities in $PbPb$ collisions

TL;DR

This paper predicts dilepton production cross sections in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at the LHC, demonstrating the feasibility of experimental analysis to study exclusive processes and search for beyond Standard Model physics.

Contribution

It provides detailed predictions for dilepton cross sections at forward rapidities, considering realistic experimental cuts and decay channels, aiding future LHCb analyses.

Findings

Exclusive processes can be cleanly separated from background.

Predicted cross sections are within detectable ranges for LHCb.

Analysis can help search for new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Abstract

The dilepton production in diffractive and exclusive processes at forward rapidities considering ultraperipheral $PbPb$ collisions at the LHC is investigated. Predictions for the $e^+ e^-$, $\mu^+ \mu^-$ and $\tau^+ \tau^-$ cross sections are presented taking into account of realistic cuts that can be implemented by the LHCb Collaboration in a future experimental analysis. Our results indicate that the background associated with the diffractive production can be strongly suppressed and the exclusive processes can be cleanly separated. For the $\tau^+ \tau^-$ production, the semi and purely leptonic decay channels are considered. Our results indicate that a future experimental analysis of the dilepton production at the LHCb is feasible and can be useful to search for BSM physics.