Inclusive photoproduction of vector quarkonium in ultra-peripheral collisions at the LHC

Abstract We explore the possibility of using ultra-periphe- ral proton-lead collisions at the LHC to study inclusive vector-quarkonium photoproduction, that occurs when a quasi-real photon emitted by a fully stripped lead ion breaks a proton to produce a vector quarkonium. Owing to the extremely lar...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jean-Philippe Lansberg, Kate Lynch, Charlotte Van Hulse, Ronan McNulty
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2025-02-01
Series:European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13693-7
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1823861616447324160
author Jean-Philippe Lansberg
Kate Lynch
Charlotte Van Hulse
Ronan McNulty
author_facet Jean-Philippe Lansberg
Kate Lynch
Charlotte Van Hulse
Ronan McNulty
author_sort Jean-Philippe Lansberg
collection DOAJ
description Abstract We explore the possibility of using ultra-periphe- ral proton-lead collisions at the LHC to study inclusive vector-quarkonium photoproduction, that occurs when a quasi-real photon emitted by a fully stripped lead ion breaks a proton to produce a vector quarkonium. Owing to the extremely large energies of the colliding hadrons circulating in the LHC, the range of accessible photon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies, $$W_{\gamma p}$$ W γ p , largely exceeds what has been and will be studied at lepton-hadron colliders, HERA and the EIC. We perform a tune to HERA photoproduction data, use this tune to predict the yields of photoproduced $$J/\psi $$ J / ψ , and estimate the corresponding transverse-momentum reach at LHC experiments. We also model the hadroproduction background and demonstrate that inclusive photoproduction can be isolated at the LHC from such background by imposing constraints on the hadronic activity in the lead-going direction at mid, forward, or far-forward rapidities depending on the capability of the detector under consideration. We find that the resulting cross sections are large enough to be measured by ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb. We estimate the background-to-signal ratio after isolation to be of the order of 0.001 and 0.1 in the low and large transverse-momentum regions, respectively. In addition, we propose and assess the Jacquet–Blondel method to reconstruct the photon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy and the fractional energy of the quarkonium with respect to the photon.
format Article
id doaj-art-0e62b9874e284334bc1b319cdb2678b9
institution Kabale University
issn 1434-6052
language English
publishDate 2025-02-01
publisher SpringerOpen
record_format Article
series European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields
spelling doaj-art-0e62b9874e284334bc1b319cdb2678b92025-02-09T12:51:42ZengSpringerOpenEuropean Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields1434-60522025-02-0185213510.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13693-7Inclusive photoproduction of vector quarkonium in ultra-peripheral collisions at the LHCJean-Philippe Lansberg0Kate Lynch1Charlotte Van Hulse2Ronan McNulty3Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, IJCLabUniversité Paris-Saclay, CNRS, IJCLabUniversity of AlcaláUniversité Paris-Saclay, CNRS, IJCLabAbstract We explore the possibility of using ultra-periphe- ral proton-lead collisions at the LHC to study inclusive vector-quarkonium photoproduction, that occurs when a quasi-real photon emitted by a fully stripped lead ion breaks a proton to produce a vector quarkonium. Owing to the extremely large energies of the colliding hadrons circulating in the LHC, the range of accessible photon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies, $$W_{\gamma p}$$ W γ p , largely exceeds what has been and will be studied at lepton-hadron colliders, HERA and the EIC. We perform a tune to HERA photoproduction data, use this tune to predict the yields of photoproduced $$J/\psi $$ J / ψ , and estimate the corresponding transverse-momentum reach at LHC experiments. We also model the hadroproduction background and demonstrate that inclusive photoproduction can be isolated at the LHC from such background by imposing constraints on the hadronic activity in the lead-going direction at mid, forward, or far-forward rapidities depending on the capability of the detector under consideration. We find that the resulting cross sections are large enough to be measured by ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb. We estimate the background-to-signal ratio after isolation to be of the order of 0.001 and 0.1 in the low and large transverse-momentum regions, respectively. In addition, we propose and assess the Jacquet–Blondel method to reconstruct the photon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy and the fractional energy of the quarkonium with respect to the photon.https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13693-7
spellingShingle Jean-Philippe Lansberg
Kate Lynch
Charlotte Van Hulse
Ronan McNulty
Inclusive photoproduction of vector quarkonium in ultra-peripheral collisions at the LHC
European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields
title Inclusive photoproduction of vector quarkonium in ultra-peripheral collisions at the LHC
title_full Inclusive photoproduction of vector quarkonium in ultra-peripheral collisions at the LHC
title_fullStr Inclusive photoproduction of vector quarkonium in ultra-peripheral collisions at the LHC
title_full_unstemmed Inclusive photoproduction of vector quarkonium in ultra-peripheral collisions at the LHC
title_short Inclusive photoproduction of vector quarkonium in ultra-peripheral collisions at the LHC
title_sort inclusive photoproduction of vector quarkonium in ultra peripheral collisions at the lhc
url https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13693-7
work_keys_str_mv AT jeanphilippelansberg inclusivephotoproductionofvectorquarkoniuminultraperipheralcollisionsatthelhc
AT katelynch inclusivephotoproductionofvectorquarkoniuminultraperipheralcollisionsatthelhc
AT charlottevanhulse inclusivephotoproductionofvectorquarkoniuminultraperipheralcollisionsatthelhc
AT ronanmcnulty inclusivephotoproductionofvectorquarkoniuminultraperipheralcollisionsatthelhc