On the Correlation of Subevents in the ATLAS and CMS/Totem Experiments

Abstract

We analyze the problem of correlating pp interaction data from the central detectors with a subevent measured in an independent system of leading proton detectors using FP420 as an example. FP420 is an R&D project conducted by a collaboration formed by members of ATLAS and CMS to investigate the possibility of detecting new physics in the central exclusive channel, PP -> P + X + P,where the central system X may be a single particle, for example a Standard Model Higgs boson. With standard LHC optics, the protons emerge from the beam at a distance of 420m from the Interaction Point, for M_X ~ 120 GeV. The mass of the central system can be measured from the outgoing protons alone, with a resolution of order 2 GeV irrespective of the decay products of the central system. In addition, to a very good approximation, only central systems with 0^++ quantum numbers can be produced, meaning that observation of a SM or MSSM Higgs Boson in this channel would lead to a direct determination of the quantum numbers.