Large transverse momentum direct photon production in the coherent diffractive processes at hadron colliders

TL;DR

This paper calculates large transverse momentum direct photon production in coherent diffractive processes at hadron colliders using a two-gluon exchange model, linking it to the off-diagonal gluon distribution and estimating rates at Fermilab Tevatron.

Contribution

It introduces a calculation method connecting direct photon production to off-diagonal gluon distributions in the proton for the first time.

Findings

Amplitude related to off-diagonal gluon distribution

Estimated production rate at Fermilab Tevatron

Potential for studying small-x physics

Abstract

Direct photon production at large transverse momentum in the coherent diffractive processes at hadron colliders is calculated in the two-gluon exchange model. We find that the amplitude for the production process is related to the differential off-diagonal gluon distribution function in the proton. We estimate the production rate at the Fermilab Tevatron by approximately using the usual gluon distribution function. Because of the clean signature, this process can be used to detailed study the small-x physics, and the coherent diffractive processes at hadron colliders.