Diffractive Dissociation Production of Heavy Vector Mesons in Ultra Peripheral Collisions from LHC to FCC
Open Access
Author:
Saylor, Michael
Area of Honors:
Physics
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Anna Stasto, Thesis Supervisor Richard Wallace Robinett, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
QCD quantum chromodynamics quantum field theory parton distribution functions vector meson photoproduction proton-lead ultra peripheral collision
Abstract:
We investigate the process of the diffractive production of the J/ψ vector meson in the ultraperipheral proton-lead collisions at LHC and FCC-hh energies. We focus on the diffractive process at large momentum transfer, −t, when the proton or a lead nucleus dissociates and its remnants are still separated by the large rapidity gap from the vector meson. The process is directly sensitive to the properties of the Pomeron, a color singlet composite of gluons, which is responsible for the of the presence rapidity gap. The energy and t dependence of the pomeron is described by the solution to the non-forward BFKL equation. The ultraperipheral collisions between protons and lead at LHC allow for a study of this process in a large rapidity range. The rapidity distributions of J/ψ are computed in the case when the Pomeron interacts with the proton as well as in the case when it couples to the nucleus. Predictions for the energies of the FCC hadron-hadron collider are also made.
