Diffractive upsilon production at the LHC

We compute the rate for diffractive upsilon meson production at the Tevatron and the LHC. The upsilon is produced diffractively via the subprocess gamma + p -> upsilon + p where the initial photon is radiated off an incoming proton (or antiproton). We consider the possibility to use low angle proton detectors to make a measurement of the gamma p cross-section and conclude that a measurement of the cross-section at a centre of mass energy in excess of 1 TeV is possible at the LHC. This is in the region where saturation effects are likely to reveal themselves.