THE RAPIDITY GAP HIGGS SIGNAL AT LHC

We compare the WW and pomeron-pomeron fusion mechanisms for the double -diffractive production of a Higgs boson. We determine the suppression of the ''rapidity gap'' pomeron-pomeron fusion events due to QCD radi ative effects. In particular we use leading log techniques to estimate the cross sections for both exclusive and inclusive double-diffractiv e Higgs production at LHC energies. The same approach can be applied t o the double-diffractive central production of large E-T dijets. These two processes provide one of the most justified applications of vario us aspects of leading logarithm QCD techniques. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.