Speaker
Prof.
Joakim Nystrand
(University of Bergen)
Description
The strong electromagnetic fields surrounding the protons and heavy
nuclei accelerated at the CERN Large Hadron Collider may be used to
study two-photon and photon-proton/nucleus interactions at
unprecedented energies. A process of particular interest is two-photon
production of pairs of W bosons. This process is sensitive to the
coupling between photons and W bosons, and may therefore be used to
probe in particular any anomalous quartic WWgammagamma coupling. The
experimental feasibility of studying this process has recently been
shown by the CMS experiment.
In this presentation, we calculate the expected standard model cross
section for this process. The strong absorption is treated in a
realistic way to properly exclude interaction where the projectiles
interact hadronically. In addition, the polarization of the W and how
it affects the angular distribution of its decay products is
investigated. These two effects have to our knowledge not been
considered in previous calculations. They are found to be essential
for the calculation of the production cross section and for the
expected yield within an experimentally accessible phase space region.
Primary author
Prof.
Joakim Nystrand
(University of Bergen)
Co-author
Mr.
Oystein Djuvsland
(University of Bergen)
