First Measurement of the |t | Dependence of Incoherent J/ψ Photonuclear Production


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Acharya S., Adamová D., Adler A., Aglieri Rinella G., Agnello M., Agrawal N., ...More

Physical Review Letters, vol.132, no.16, 2024 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 132 Issue: 16
  • Publication Date: 2024
  • Doi Number: 10.1103/physrevlett.132.162302
  • Journal Name: Physical Review Letters
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Aerospace Database, Chemical Abstracts Core, Compendex, INSPEC, zbMATH, DIALNET
  • Yıldız Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The first measurement of the cross section for incoherent photonuclear production of J/ψ vector mesons as a function of the Mandelstam |t| variable is presented. The measurement was carried out with the ALICE detector at midrapidity, |y|<0.8, using ultraperipheral collisions of Pb nuclei at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of sNN=5.02 TeV. This rapidity interval corresponds to a Bjorken-x range (0.3-1.4)×10-3. Cross sections are given in five |t| intervals in the range 0.04<|t|<1 GeV2 and compared to the predictions by different models. Models that ignore quantum fluctuations of the gluon density in the colliding hadron predict a |t| dependence of the cross section much steeper than in data. The inclusion of such fluctuations in the same models provides a better description of the data.