Observation of Central Exclusive Diphoton Production at the Tevatron

Abstract

We have observed exclusive γγ production in proton-antiproton collisions at the Tevatron at √ s = 1.96 TeV. We use data corresponding to 1.11 ± 0.07 fb-1 integrated luminosity taken by the Run II Collider Detector at Fermilab, with a trigger requiring two electromagnetic showers, each with transverse energy ET > 2 GeV, and vetoing on hits in the forward beam shower counters. We select events with two electromagnetic showers, each with transverse energy ET > 2.5 GeV and pseudorapidity |η| < 1.0, with no other particles detected in -7.4 < η < +7.4. The two showers have similar ET and an azimuthal angle separation Δφ ~ π; we find 34 events with exactly two matching charged particle tracks, agreeing with expectations for the QED process p¯p → p+e+e- + ¯p by two photon exchange; and we find 43 events with no tracks. The latter are candidates for the exclusive process p¯p → p + γγ + ¯p by double pomeron exchange. We use the strip and wire chambers at the longitudinal shower maximum position within the calorimeter to measure a possible exclusive background from IP + IP → π0π0, and conclude that it is consistent with zero and is < 15 events at 95% C.L. The measured cross section is σγγ,excl(|η| < 1, ET (γ) > 2.5 GeV) = 2.48 +0.40 -0.35(stat) +0.40 -0.51(syst) pb and in agreement with the theoretical predictions. This process is closely related to exclusive Higgs boson production pp → p + H + p at the Large Hadron Collider. The observation of the exclusive production of diphotons shows that exclusive Higgs production can happen and could be observed with a proper experimental setup.