Probing the perturbative dynamics of exclusive meson pair production

We present the results of a recent novel application of the 'hard exclusive' perturbative formalism to the process gg -> M (M) over bar at large angles, where M ((M) over bar) is a light meson (anti-meson). As well as discussing the important theoretical features of the relevant leading-order gg -> q (q) over bar (gg)q (q) over bar (gg) 6-parton amplitudes, we also comment on their phenomenological implications. In particular, we consider the central exclusive production of meson pairs at comparatively large transverse momentum k(perpendicular to), which is expected to proceed via this mechanism. We show that this leads to various non-trivial predictions for a range of exclusive processes, and that the cross sections for the eta' and eta mesons display significant sensitivity to any valence gg component of the meson wavefunctions. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.