Diffraction at RHIC

TL;DR

This paper discusses the potential of RHIC to study various diffraction phenomena in polarized and unpolarized collisions, focusing on hard diffraction, exotic mesons, and gluon saturation effects.

Contribution

It introduces diffraction at RHIC and explores three novel physics topics, including polarization effects, exotic meson identification, and gluon density measurements.

Findings

Potential to study polarization effects in diffraction

Identification strategies for exotic mesons in double-Pomeron collisions

Using diffraction to probe low-x gluon saturation models

Abstract

The relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) offers many opportunities to study diffraction in pp, pA and AA collisions. Because both proton beams can be polarized, RHIC offers the unique possibility of studying polarization effects in diffraction. We will introduce diffraction at RHIC and present three compelling physics topics: hard diffraction with polarized beams, identification of exotic mesons (non-q q-bar states) in double-Pomeron collisions, and using diffraction to measure the low-x gluon density in $pA$ collisions, testing models of gluon saturation and the colored glass condensate. This note developed from discussion at a workshop on ``Diffraction and Glueball Production at RHIC'' at Brookhaven National Laboratory, May 17-18, 2002.