Soft processes at the LHC, II: Soft-hard factorization breaking and gap survival

Understand

We calculate the probability that the rapidity gaps in diffractive processes survive both eikonal and enhanced rescattering.

• We present arguments that enhanced rescattering, which violates soft-hard factorization, is not very strong.
• Accounting for NLO effects, there is no reason to expect that the black disc regime is reached at the LHC.
• We discuss the predictions for the survival of the rapidity gaps for exclusive Higgs production at the LHC.