Conventional versus single-ladder-splitting contributions to double parton scattering production of two quarkonia, two Higgs bosons and $c \bar c c \bar c$

Abstract

The double parton distributions (dPDF), both conventional and those corresponding to parton splitting, are calculated and compared for different two-parton combinations. The conventional and splitting dPDFs have very similar shape in $x_1$ and $x_2$. We make a first quantitative evaluation of the single-ladder-splitting contribution to double parton scattering (DPS) production of two S- or P-wave quarkonia, two Higgs bosons and $c \bar c c \bar c$. The ratio of the single-ladder-splitting to conventional contributions is discussed as a function of centre-of-mass energy, mass of the produced system and other kinematical variables. Using a simple model for the dependence of the conventional two-parton distribution on transverse parton separation (Gaussian and independent of $x_i$ and scales), we find that the 2v1 contribution is as big as the 2v2 contribution discussed in recent years in the literature. This means that the phenomenological analyses of $\sigma_{eff}$ including only the conventional DPS mechanism have to be revised including explicitly the single-ladder-splitting contributions discussed here. The differential distributions in rapidity and transverse momenta calculated for conventional and single-ladder-splitting DPS processes are however very similar which causes their experimental separation to be rather difficult, if not impossible. The direct consequence of the existence of the two components (conventional and splitting) is the energy and process dependence of the empirical parameter $\sigma_{eff}$. This is illustrated in our paper for the considered processes.