Diffractive pQCD mechanism of exclusive production of W+W - pairs in proton-proton collisions

• We present a study of central exclusive production of W+W - pairs in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. We compare the contribution of the γγ → W+W- mechanism with a new mechanism of exclusive diffractive production through the gg → W+W- subprocess with intermediate virtual Higgs boson and quark box diagrams. The amplitude for the latter process is expressed in terms of the off-diagonal unintegrated gluon distribution functions. Several observables related to this process are calculated. The phase space integrated diffractive contribution when separated is only a small fraction of fb compared to 115.4 fb of the γγ-contribution without absorption. This opens a possibility of efficient searches for anomalous boson γW+W - and γγW+W- couplings due to new physics beyond Standard Model.

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