Diffractive Higgsstrahlung

We consider single-diffractive (SD) Higgs production in association with heavy flavor in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The main focus of our study is a reliable estimate of SD/inclusive ratio, not a precision computation of the cross sections. The calculations are performed within the framework of the phenomenological dipole approach, which includes by default the absorptive corrections, i.e., the gap survival effects at the amplitude level. The dominant mechanism is the diffractive production of heavy quarks, which radiate a Higgs boson (Higgsstrahlung). Although diffractive production of t-quarks is grossly suppressed as 1/m(t)(2), the large Higgs-top coupling compensates this smallness and the Higgsstrahlung by t-quarks becomes the dominant contribution at large Higgs boson transverse momenta. We computed the basic observables such as the transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of the diffractively produced Higgs boson in association with the bottom and top quark pair. Finally, we discuss a potential relevance of the diffractive Higgsstrahlung in comparison to the Higgsstrahlung off intrinsic heavy flavor at forward Higgs boson rapidities.