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Probing small Bjorken-$x$ nuclear gluonic structure via coherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV

The CMS collaboration Tumasyan, Armen ; Adam, Wolfgang ; Andrejkovic, Janik Walter ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 131 (2023) 262301, 2023.
Inspire Record 2648536 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.138867

Quasireal photons exchanged in relativistic heavy ion interactions are powerful probes of the gluonic structure of nuclei. The coherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction cross section in ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions is measured as a function of photon-nucleus center-of-mass energies per nucleon (W$^\text{Pb}_{\gamma\text{N}}$), over a wide range of 40 $\lt$ W$^\text{Pb}_{\gamma\text{N}}$$\lt$ 400 GeV. Results are obtained using data at the nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.52 nb$^{-1}$. The cross section is observed to rise rapidly at low W$^\text{Pb}_{\gamma\text{N}}$, and plateau above W$^\text{Pb}_{\gamma\text{N}}$$\approx$ 40 GeV, up to 400 GeV, a new regime of small Bjorken-$x$ ($\approx$ 6 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$) gluons being probed in a heavy nucleus. The observed energy dependence is not predicted by current quantum chromodynamic models.

16 data tables

The differential coherent $\mathrm{J}/\psi$ photoproduction cross section as a function of rapidity, in different neutron multiplicity classes: 0n0n, 0nXn, XnXn , and AnAn.

The differential coherent $\mathrm{J}/\psi$ photoproduction cross section as a function of rapidity, in different neutron multiplicity classes: 0n0n, 0nXn, XnXn , and AnAn.

The total coherent $\mathrm{J}/\psi$ photoproduction cross section as a function of photon-nuclear center-of-mass energy per nucleon $W_{\gamma \mathrm{N}}^{\mathrm{Pb}}$, measured in PbPb ultra-peripheral collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV. The $W_{\gamma \mathrm{N}}^{\mathrm{Pb}}$ values used correspond to the center of each rapidity range. The theoretical uncertainties is due to the uncertainties in the photon flux.

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Tomography of Ultra-relativistic Nuclei with Polarized Photon-gluon Collisions

The STAR collaboration Abdallah, Mohamed ; Aboona, Bassam ; Adam, Jaroslav ; et al.
Sci.Adv. 9 (2023) eabq3903, 2023.
Inspire Record 2062296 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.132921

A linearly polarized photon can be quantized from the Lorentz-boosted electromagnetic field of a nucleus traveling at ultra-relativistic speed. When two relativistic heavy nuclei pass one another at a distance of a few nuclear radii, the photon from one nucleus may interact through a virtual quark-antiquark pair with gluons from the other nucleus forming a short-lived vector meson (e.g. ${\rho^0}$). In this experiment, the polarization was utilized in diffractive photoproduction to observe a unique spin interference pattern in the angular distribution of ${\rho^0\rightarrow\pi^+\pi^-}$ decays. The observed interference is a result of an overlap of two wave functions at a distance an order of magnitude larger than the ${\rho^0}$ travel distance within its lifetime. The strong-interaction nuclear radii were extracted from these diffractive interactions, and found to be $6.53\pm 0.06$ fm ($^{197} {\rm Au }$) and $7.29\pm 0.08$ fm ($^{238} {\rm U}$), larger than the nuclear charge radii. The observable is demonstrated to be sensitive to the nuclear geometry and quantum interference of non-identical particles.

14 data tables

The invariant mass distribution of pi+pi- pairs collected from Au+Au and U+U collisions.

Two-dimensional $\rho^0$ momentum distribution from Au+Au collisions.

Two-dimensional $\rho^0$ momentum distribution from Au+Au collisions.

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