Central exclusive production of $\eta_c$ and $\chi_{c0}$ in the light-front k$_{\perp}-factorization approach

Abstract

We study the exclusive production of J^{PC} = 0^{++},0^{-+}JPC=0++,0−+ charmonium states in proton-proton collisions at the LHC energies. The pp \to pp\eta_cpp→ppηc reaction is discussed for the first time. We observe a substantial contribution from the nonperturbative domain of gluon virtualities, especially for \eta_cηc production. To model the nonperturbative region better, we utilize models of the unintegrated gluon distribution based on parametrizations of the color dipole cross-section.