Probing color-singlet exchange in $Z+2$-jet events at the LHC

The purely electroweak process $qq\to qqZ$ (via $t$-channel $\gamma/Z$ or $W$ exchange) provides a copious and fairly clean source of color-singlet exchange events in $pp$ collisions at the LHC. A judicious choice of phase-space region allows the suppression of QCD backgrounds to the level of the signal. The color-singlet-exchange signal can be distinguished from QCD backgrounds by the radiation patterns of additional minijets in individual events. A rapidity-gap trigger at the minijet level substantially enhances the signal versus the background. Analogous features of weak boson scattering events make $Z+2$-jet events at the LHC an ideal laboratory for investigation of the soft-jet activity expected in weak-boson scattering events.