Diffractive Higgs production from intrinsic heavy flavors in the proton

We propose a novel mechanism for exclusive diffractive Higgs production $pp\to pHp$ in which the Higgs boson carries a significant fraction of the projectile proton momentum. This mechanism will provide a clear experimental signal for Higgs production due to the small background in this kinematic region. The key assumption underlying our analysis is the presence of intrinsic heavy flavor components of the proton bound state, whose existence at the high light-cone momentum fraction $x$ has growing experimental and theoretical support. We also discuss the implications of this picture for exclusive diffractive quarkonium and other channels.

Figure 1

The exclusive diffractive production of $J/\psi$, ${\chi }_c$, ${\rm Y}$, ${\chi }_b$, $Z^0$, or $H$, the standard model Higgs.

Figure 2

The two-gluon exchange diagram for the Higgs exclusive production.

Figure 3

The distribution of produced Higgs particles over the fraction of the proton beam momentum. The dotted, dashed, and solid curves correspond to Higgs production from nonperturbative IC ($\beta =1$), perturbative IC ($\beta =0$), and IT, respectively.

Figure 4

The cross section of the reaction $pp\to Hp+p$ as a function of the Higgs mass. Contributions of IC (dashed line), IB (dotted line), and IT (solid line).

Figure 5

Higgs production via Pomeron exchange.