Exclusive LHC physics with heavy ions: SuperChic 3

Harland-Lang, L.A.; Khoze, V.A.; Ryskin, M.G.

Abstract

We present results of the updated SuperChic 3 Monte Carlo event generator for central exclusive production. This extends the previous treatment of proton–proton collisions to include heavy ion (pA and AA) beams, for both photon and QCD-initiated production, the first time such a unified treatment of exclusive processes has been presented in a single generator. To achieve this we have developed a theory of the gap survival factor in heavy ion collisions, which allows us to derive some straightforward results about the A scaling of the corresponding cross sections. We compare against the recent ATLAS and CMS measurements of light-by-light scattering at the LHC, in lead-lead collisions. We find that the background from QCD-initiated production is expected to be very small, in contrast to some earlier estimates. We also present results from new photon-initiated processes that can now be generated, namely the production of axion-like particles, monopole pairs and monopolium, top quark pair production, and the inclusion of W loops in light-by-light scattering.

Citation

Harland-Lang, L., Khoze, V., & Ryskin, M. (2019). Exclusive LHC physics with heavy ions: SuperChic 3. The European Physical Journal C, 79(1), Article 39. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-6530-5

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 20, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jan 18, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 18, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jan 22, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 22, 2019
• Journal: European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields
• Print ISSN: 1434-6044
• Electronic ISSN: 1434-6052
• Publisher: SpringerOpen
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 79
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 39
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-6530-5