Recent progress in some exclusive and semi-exclusive processes in proton-proton collisions

Abstract

We present the main results of our recent analyses of exclusive production of vector charmonia ($J/\psi$ and $\psi'$) in $k_t$-factorization approach and for $\gamma \gamma$ production of charged dilepton pairs in exclusive and semiinclusive processes in a new approach, similar in spirit to $k_t$-factorization. The results for charmonia are compared with recent results of the LHCb collaboration. We include some helicity flip contributions and quantify the effect of absorption correction. The effect of $c \bar c$ wave function is illustrated. We present uncertainties related to $F_2$ structure function which are the main ingredient of the approach. Our results are compared with recent CMS data for dilepton production with lepton isolation cuts imposed.