Monte Carlo study of particle production in diffractive proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the very forward detector combined with central information

Abstract

Very forward (VF) detectors in hadron colliders, having unique sensitivity to diffractive processes, can be a powerful tool for studying diffractive dissociation by combining them with central detectors. Several Monte Carlo simulation samples in $p$-$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV were analyzed, and different nondiffractive and diffractive contributions were clarified through differential cross sections of forward neutral particles. Diffraction selection criteria in the VF-triggered-event samples were determined by using the central track information. The corresponding selection applicable in real experiments has $\approx$100% purity and 30%-70% efficiency. Consequently, the central information enables classification of the forward productions into diffraction and nondiffraction categories; in particular, most of the surviving events from the selection belong to low-mass diffraction events at ${\log }_{10}({\xi }_x)<-5.5$. Therefore, the combined method can uniquely access the low-mass diffraction regime experimentally.

10 pages, 16 figures, 1tables