Measurement of exclusive production of scalar <mml:math altimg="si1.gif" overflow="scroll" xmlns:xocs="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/xocs/dtd" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/ja/dtd" xmlns:ja="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/ja/dtd" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:tb="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/common/table/dtd" xmlns:sb="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/common/struct-bib/dtd" xmlns:ce="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/common/dtd" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:cals="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/common/cals/dtd"><mml:msub><mml:mi>χ</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mi>c</mml:mi><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:math> meson in proton–(anti)proton collisions via <mml:math altimg="si2.gif" overflow="scroll" xmlns:xocs="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/xocs/dtd" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/ja/dtd" xmlns:ja="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/ja/dtd" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:tb="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/common/table/dtd" xmlns:sb="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/common/struct-bib/dtd" xmlns:ce="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/common/dtd" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:cals="http://www.elsevier.com/xml/common/cals/dtd"><mml:msub><mml:mi>χ</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mi>c</mml:mi><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mo>→</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mi>π</mml:mi><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:msup><mml:msup><mml:mi>π</mml:mi><mml:mo>−</mml:mo></mml:msup></mml:math> decay
We consider a measurement of exclusive production of scalar $\chi_{c}(0^{++})$ meson in the proton-proton collisions at LHC and RHIC and in the proton-antiproton collisions at the Tevatron via $\chi_{c0} \to \pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ decay. The corresponding amplitude for exclusive double-diffractive $\chi_{c0}$ meson production was obtained within the $k_{t}$-factorization approach including virtualities of active gluons and the corresponding cross section is calculated with unintegrated gluon distribution functions (UGDFs) known from the literature. The four-body $p p \to p p \pi^+ \pi^-$ reaction constitutes an irreducible background to the exclusive $\chi_{c0}$ meson production. We calculate several differential distributions for $pp(\bar{p}) \to pp(\bar{p})\chi_{c0}$ process including absorptive corrections. The influence of kinematical cuts on the signal-to-background ratio is investigated. Corresponding experimental consequences are discussed.