Hadronic Production of the New Resonances: Are Gluons Important?

Abstract

In analogy with the Drell-Yan model for quark-antiquark annihilation into massive virtual photons, we study the possibility that the (presently) hypothetical pseudoscalar partner (${\eta }_c$) of the new vector resonance (${\varphi }_c$) observed at 3095 MeV is produced via gluon-gluon annihilation. This framework allows us to estimate cross sections for ${\eta }_c$ production in hadronic reactions and also suggests the interesting possibility of employing ${\eta }_c$ production as a probe of the distributions of gluons in hadrons. In addition estimates are made for the production of pairs of charmed hadrons.