Single charged Higgs pair production in exclusive processes at the LHC

The production of a single charged Higgs boson pair by photon - photon interactions in $pp$ collisions at the LHC is investigated in this exploratory study. We focus on the exclusive production, which is characterized by intact protons and two - rapidity gaps in the final state, and assume the type - I two - Higgs - doublet model, which still allows a light charged Higgs. Assuming the leptonic H±→ [τντ] decay mode, we derive predictions for the transverse momentum, rapidity and invariant mass distributions of the τ⁺ τ⁻ pair for different values of the charged Higgs mass. The contributions of different background processes are also estimated. Our results indicate that the contribution of the exclusive H⁺ H⁻ production for the [τ⁺ντ][τ⁻ ντ] final state is non - negligible and can, in principle, be used to searching for a light charged Higgs.