Study of Central Exclusive Production of ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$, $K^{+}{K}^{-}$ and $p\bar{p}$ Pairs in Proton-Proton Collisions at $\sqrt{s}=510$ GeV with the STAR Detector at RHIC

Abstract

We report on the first measurement of the Central Exclusive Production process in proton-proton collisions: $pp\to p{h}^{+}{h}^{-}p$ (where $h=\pi ,K,p$) at the center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=510$ GeV with the STAR experiment at RHIC. At this energy, the process is dominated by a double Pomeron exchange mechanism. Hence, it provides a clean environment for investigating Pomeron interactions by measuring fully reconstructed final states involving only two hadrons and two forward scattered protons. The oppositely charged hadron pairs are measured within the central detector of STAR. The forward scattered protons are measured in the Roman Pot system allowing the verification of the event's exclusivity. Differential fiducial cross sections within the STAR acceptance are presented as a function of the difference in the azimuthal angle between the outgoing protons. The invariant masses of the charged hadron pairs are measured up to approximately 3 GeV and the square of the four-momentum transfer ($t_1$ and $t_2$) of the two forward-scattered protons in the range $0.3{\text{ GeV}}^2<-t_1,-t_2<1.6{\text{ GeV}}^2$. The differential fiducial cross sections of the forward protons as a function of the $|t_1+t_2|$ are also presented. All results for the ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ pair are presented in three mass ranges. A comparison with GRANIITTI Monte Carlo predictions are also presented, where the spectra include continuum and resonant contributions. The observed spectra are consistent with double Pomeron exchange, including resonances seen in previous studies.

arXiv commentPrepared for submission to JHEP

References in corpus (12)

• The STAR Time Projection Chamber: A Unique Tool for Studying High Multiplicity Events at RHIC
• The Status of Glueballs
• The RHIC Zero Degree Calorimeter
• A Glueball- $q\bar{q}$ Filter in Central Hadron Production
• A Model for Soft High-Energy Scattering: Tensor Pomeron and Vector Odderon
• The STAR Vertex Position Detector
• The photon PDF in events with rapidity gaps
• Central exclusive production within the Durham model: a review
• Central exclusive diffractive production of ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ continuum, scalar and tensor resonances in $pp$ and $p\bar{p}$ scattering within tensor pomeron approach
• A Comprehensive Study of the Radiative Decays of $J/\psi$ and $\psi (2S)$ to Pseudoscalar Meson Pairs, and Search for Glueballs
• Exclusive photoproduction of $\varphi$ meson in $\gamma p\to \varphi p$ and $pp\to p\varphi p$ reactions
• A review of central production experiments at the CERN Omega spectrometer