Observation of exclusive dijet production at the Fermilab Tevatron $\bar{p}p$ collider
T. Aaltonen \fIet al.\fP

We present the first observation and cross section measurement of exclusive dijet production in $\bar pp$ interactions, $\bar pp\rightarrow \bar p+\mbox{dijet}+p$. Using a data sample of 310 pb$^{-1}$ collected by the Run II Collider Detector at Fermilab at $\sqrt s$=1.96 TeV, exclusive cross sections for events with two jets of transverse energy $E_T^{jet}\geq 10$ GeV have been measured as a function of minimum $E_T^{jet}$. The exclusive signal is extracted from fits to data distributions based on Monte Carlo simulations of expected dijet signal and background shapes. The simulated background distribution shapes are checked in a study of a largely independent data sample of 200 pb$^{-1}$ of $b$-tagged jet events, where exclusive dijet production is expected to be suppressed by the $J_z=0$ total angular momentum selection rule. Results obtained are compared with theoretical expectations, and implications for exclusive Higgs boson production at the $pp$ Large Hadron Collider at $\sqrt s=$14~TeV are discussed.

© 2008 The American Physical Society.