Speaker
Description
Although the QCD instanton has been intensively searched for in several experiments, and is currently being searched at LHC, it has not so far been observed. In 2208.14089 we study the possibility to observe heavy ($M_{\rm inst}>$ 60 GeV) QCD instantons at the LHC in the diffraction mode, i.e. in events with one or two tagged leading protons which are accompanied by large rapidity gaps. The presented analysis provides a detailed look into the experimental situation and accounts for detector and pile-up effects. We show that the expected instanton signal in a single-tagged configuration is strongly affected by central detector and pile-up effects but observable. For double-tagged approach the combinatorial background overwhelms the expected signal. Possible improvements lie in adding time information about tracks at central and forward rapidities.
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