Forward Physics at LHCb – Prospects for the Study of Diffractive Interactions

LHCb, the smallest of the large LHC experiments is a forward spectrometer covering the angular range 2 < $\eta$ < 5 with tracking, calorimetry and particle identification. Partial coverage of the backward hemisphere is also provided by the vertex detector (Vertex Locator, VeLo), a silicon strip detector surrounding the interaction region. Generator level Monte Carlo studies suggest that using the VeLo to ask for a rapidity gap of $\delta\eta$ = 2.5 in the backward region allows to select event samples dominated by diffractive processes. Making use of the excellent tracking, vertexing and particle identification capabilities of the LHCb detector, the characteristics of diffractive particle production thus can be studied in detail in the forward acceptance covered by the experiment.