Multiperipheral Theory of Massive-Muon Pair Production in Hadron Collisions

Massive-lepton pair production in high-energy hadron collisions is studied in the ABFST (Amati-Bertocchi-Fubini-Stanghellini-Tonin) multiperipheral model. The cross section for point electromagnetic couplings is given by $\frac{d\sigma }{d{Q}^2}=Q^{-4\mathrm{}}f\left(\frac{s}{Q^2}\right)$ when $Q^2\gg M^2$, where $\sqrt{s}$ is the center-of-mass energy of the colliding protons, $Q$ the mass of the lepton pair, and $M$ the nucleon mass. The scaling function $f$ is expressed in terms of $\pi N$ and $\mathrm{NN}$ off-shell forward absorptive amplitudes. When $s\gg Q^2$, the function $f$ behaves like $a\ln \left(\frac{s}{Q^2}\right)+b$, Pomeron dominance being assumed. Gauge invariance of the model is discussed.