ESTIMATING DIFFRACTIVE HIGGS-BOSON PRODUCTION AT LHC FROM HERA DATA

Using a recently proposed factorization hypothesis for semi-inclusive hard processes in QCD, one can study, in principle, the diffractive pr oduction of the Standard Model Higgs boson at LHC using only, as input , ep diffractive hard-processes data of the type recently collected an d analyzed by the H1 and ZEUS collaborations at HERA. While waiting fo r a more precise and complete set of data, we combine here the existin g data with a simple Pomeron-exchange picture and find a large spread in the Higgs boson production cross section, depending on the input pa rametrization of the Pomeron's parton content. In particular, if the P omeron gluon density f(g/P)(beta) is peaked at large beta for small sc ales, single diffractive events will represent a sizeable fraction of all produced Higgs bosons with an expected better-than-average signal- to-background ratio.