Photoproduction of heavy vector mesons in ultra-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions

Abstract

Ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions, in which the two nuclei pass close to each other, but at an impact parameter greater than the sum of their radii, provide information about the initial state of nuclei. In particular, heavy vector meson production, where the particle mass sets a hard scale, proceeds in such collisions by photon-gluon interactions, and gives access to nuclear PDFs. The ALICE collaboration has published measurements of J/psi and psi(2S) photoproduction in ultra-peripheral collisions in LHC Run 1 at forward (J/psi) and mid-rapidity, and has obtained a substantially larger data set in 2015 from LHC Run 2, allowing much more detailed studies of the production mechanism to be performed. In particular, the increased energy and more detailed measurements in the forward region in Run 2 give access to significantly lower values of Bjorken-x than in previous studies. In this talk, the latest available results from Run 2 will be given.