Central diffraction at the LHCb

The LHCb experiment is shown to be ideal for studies of exclusive final states from central diffractive reactions. The gluon-rich environment of the central system allows detailed QCD studies and searches for exotic meson states, such as glueballs, hybrids and new charmonium-like states. It would also provide a good testing ground for detailed studies of heavy quarkonia. Due to its distinct design features, the LHCb can accurately measure the low-mass central systems with good purity. The efficiency of the Forward Shower Counter (FSC) system for detecting rapidity gaps is shown to be adequate for the proposed studies. With this detector arrangement, valuable new data can be obtained by tagging central diffractive processes.