Diffractive Vector Meson Production Research Articles

Effects of nuclear structure and quantum interference on diffractive vector meson production in ultraperipheral nuclear collisions

Effects of nuclear structure and quantum interference on diffractive vector meson production in ultraperipheral nuclear collisions

Multiscale Imaging of Nuclear Deformation at the Electron-Ion Collider.

We show within the color glass condensate framework that exclusive vector meson production at high energy is very sensitive to the geometric deformation of the target nucleus at multiple length scales. We show that different multipole deformation parameters affect different regions of transverse momentum transfer. These results have two important consequences: (1)Deformations of nuclear targets need to be taken into account when making predictions for and interpreting certain observables at the EIC. (2)Differential diffractive vector meson production has the potential to become a powerful tool, enabling the most direct measurements of nuclear structure at different length scales, ranging from large scale nuclear deformation at low transverse momentum transfer to fluctuations on nucleon- and subnucleon-size scales at higher transverse momentum transfer.

Coherent photons induced high energy reactions in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions

We review the recent progress in the studies of coherent photons induced high energy reactions in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions. The strong electromagnetic field created by a fast moving charged heavy ion can be effectively viewed as a flux of quasi-real coherent photons. In this paper, we mainly discuss two different type processes that coherent photons take part in: lepton pair production via photon fusion and diffractive vector meson production in UPCs. We focus on investigating the impact parameter dependent effect and the final state soft radiation effect. On the other hand, a series of recent work have revealed that coherent photons are highly linearly polarized with its polarization vector being parallel to its transverse momentum. It has been shown that the linearly polarized photons can lead to <inline-formula><tex-math id="M2">\begin{document}$\cos 4\phi$\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="7-20230074_M2.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="7-20230074_M2.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> azimuthal asymmetries in di-lepton production. This theoretical predication soon has been confirmed by the STAR measurement. With this new development from both theory and experiment sides, the linearly polarized photons provide a new experimental avenue to explore novel QCD phenomenology. For example, the linearly polarized photons can give rise to various different azimuthal asymmetries in diffractive vector meson production. These observables provide us unique chance to study two source interference effect in high energy scatterings, Coulomb-Nuclear interference effect as well as extracting gluon Wigner distribution. We will discuss these novel phenomenology studies and the possible future developments.

Probing the Gluonic Structure of the Deuteron with J/ψ Photoproduction in d+Au Ultraperipheral Collisions.

Understanding gluon density distributions and how they are modified in nuclei are among the most important goals in nuclear physics. In recent years, diffractive vector meson production measured in ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) at heavy-ion colliders has provided a new tool for probing the gluon density. In this Letter, we report the first measurement of J/ψ photoproduction off the deuteron in UPCs at the center-of-mass energy sqrt[s_{NN}]=200 GeV in d+Au collisions. The differential cross section as a function of momentum transfer -t is measured. In addition, data with a neutron tagged in the deuteron-going zero-degree calorimeter is investigated for the first time, which is found to be consistent with the expectation of incoherent diffractive scattering at low momentum transfer. Theoretical predictions based on the color glass condensate saturation model and the leading twist approximation nuclear shadowing model are compared with the data quantitatively. A better agreement with the saturation model has been observed. With the current measurement, the results are found to be directly sensitive to the gluon density distribution of the deuteron and the deuteron breakup process, which provides insights into the nuclear gluonic structure.

Gluon imaging using azimuthal correlations in diffractive scattering at the Electron-Ion Collider

We study coherent diffractive photon and vector meson production in electron-proton and electron-nucleus collisions within the Color Glass Condensate effective field theory. We show that electron-photon and electron-vector meson azimuthal angle correlations are sensitive to non-trivial spatial correlations in the gluon distribution of the target, and perform explicit calculations using spatially dependent McLerran-Venugopalan initial color charge configurations coupled to the numerical solution of small $x$ JIMWLK evolution equations. We compute the cross-section differentially in $Q^2$ and $|t|$ and find sizeable anisotropies in the electron-photon and electron-$\mathrm{J}/\psi$ azimuthal correlations ($v_{1,2} \approx 2 - 10 \%$) in electron-proton collisions for the kinematics of the future Electron-Ion Collider. In electron-gold collisions these modulations are found to be significantly smaller ($v_{1,2} <0.1 \%$). We also compute incoherent diffractive production where we find that the azimuthal correlations are sensitive to fluctuations of the gluon distribution in the target.

Contribution of exclusive diffractive processes to the measured azimuthal asymmetries in SIDIS

Hadron leptoproduction in Semi-Inclusive measurements of Deep-Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) on unpolarised nucleons allows one to get information on the intrinsic transverse momentum of quarks in a nucleon and on the Boer-Mulders function through the measurement of azimuthal modulations in the cross section. These modulations were recently measured by the HERMES experiment at DESY on proton and deuteron targets, and by the COMPASS experiment using the CERN SPS muon beam and a 6LiD target. In both cases, the amplitudes of the cos⁡ϕh and cos⁡2ϕh modulations show strong kinematic dependences for both positive and negative hadrons. It has been known since some time that the measured final-state hadrons in those SIDIS experiments receive a contribution from exclusive diffractive production of vector mesons, particularly important at large values of z, the fraction of the virtual photon energy carried by the hadron. In previous measurements of azimuthal asymmetries this contribution was not taken into account, because it was not known that it could distort the azimuthal modulations. Presently, a method to evaluate the contribution of the exclusive reactions to the azimuthal asymmetries measured by COMPASS has been developed. The subtraction of this contribution results in a better understanding of the kinematic effects, and the remaining non-zero cos⁡2ϕh modulation gives indication for a non-zero Boer-Mulders effect.

Exclusive diffractive vector meson production: A comparison between the dipole model and the leading twist shadowing approach

With the imminent construction of an electron-ion collider in the USA, both saturation physics and nuclear shadowing physics will be important for the same processes for the first time. In particular for exclusive production of vector mesons, such as the J/$\psi$. In this paper we investigate the underlying assumptions commonly made when phenomenologically investigating this process from a shadowing and saturation perspective respectively. We use the bSat model which is commonly used to describe saturation physics, and a calculation by M.G. Ryskin which is commonly used when describing nuclear shadowing at leading twist. It is expected that the bSat model is equivalent to Ryskin's result in the hard scattering and non-relativistic limits. By explicitly taking these limits we show that the bSat model does indeed become equivalent to Ryskin's result. However, two more approximations are needed for this result. Firstly, the factorisation and renormalisation scales in the bSat model has to be independent of the dipole radius, and secondly, we need to omit a term in the overlap between the vector meson and virtual photon wave functions. We show that for the typical dipole radius of the J/$\psi$, the different approximations off-set each other and the bSat model agrees very well with Ryskin's calculation in hard-scattering and non-relativistic limits.

Diffractive incoherent vector meson production off protons: a quark model approach to gluon fluctuation effects

Fluctuations play an important role in diffractive production of vector mesons. It was in particular recently suggested, based on the Impact-Parameter dependent Saturation model (IPSat), that geometrical fluctuations triggered by the motion of the constituent quarks within the protons could explain incoherent diffractive processes observed at HERA. We propose a variant of the IPSat model which includes spatial and symmetry correlations between constituent quarks, thereby reducing the number of parameters needed to describe diffractive vector meson production to a single one, the size of the gluon cloud around each valence quark. The application to J/varPsi , rho and phi diffractive electron and photon production cross sections reveal the important role of geometrical fluctuations in incoherent channels, while other sources of fluctuations are needed to fully account for electroproduction of light mesons, as well as photo production of J/varPsi mesons at small momentum transfer.

Energy and system size dependence of subnucleonic fluctuations

The energy evolution of the fluctuating proton structure is studied by solving the JIMWLK renormalization group equation. The initial condition at moderate x is obtained by fitting the charm reduced cross section data from HERA, requiring that the proton size remains compatible with the diffractive vector meson production measurements. Additionally, we show that the nucleon shape fluctuations are visible in exclusive vector meson production off nuclei.

Confronting the impact parameter dependent JIMWLK evolution with HERA data

The small-$x$ evolution of protons is determined from numerical solutions of the JIMWLK equations, starting from an initial condition at moderate $x$ for a finite size proton. The resulting dipole amplitude is used to calculate the total reduced cross section $\sigma_r$ and charm reduced cross section $\sigma_{rc}$, as well as diffractive vector meson production. We compare results to experimental data from HERA and discuss fundamental problems arising from the regime sensitive to non-perturbative physics. We emphasize that information on the gluonic content of the proton, gluon spatial distributions and correlations over wide ranges in $x$, which can in principle be constrained by our study, are essential ingredients for describing the initial state in proton-proton and proton-ion collisions. Future electron nucleus collisions at an electron-ion collider will provide important additional insight for heavier nuclei. We further demonstrate that it is not possible to probe gluon saturation in electron-proton collision at HERA energies and that electron-heavy ion collisions will be essential to access the saturation regime.

Incoherent diffractive photoproduction of J/ψ and Υ on heavy nuclei in the color dipole approach

We calculate cross sections and transverse momentum distributions for the incoherent diffractive production of vector mesons $J/\psi$ and $\Upsilon$ on heavy nuclei. In distinction to coherent diffraction, the nucleus is allowed to break up, but except for the vector meson no new particles are produced in the reaction. Within the color dipole approach, we derive the multiple scattering expansion of the incoherent diffractive cross section as an expansion over quasielastic scatterings of the color dipole. We also compare our results to the measurement of the ALICE collaboration for incoherent $J/\psi$ production at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 \, \rm {TeV}$ and show predictions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02 \, \rm{TeV}$. We also briefly discuss a possible contribution to $J/\psi$ production in peripheral collisions in the $70 \div 90 \%$ centrality class.

Exclusive J/Ψ,ρ,ϕ and γ production at HERA and LHC within dipole models

We describe exclusive J/ψ,ρ,Φ and γ production at HERA and calculate cross sections and transverse momentum distributions for the incoherent diffractive production of vector mesons J/ψ and γ on heavy nuclei. Within the color dipole approach, we derive the multiple scattering expansion of the incoherent diffractive cross section as an expansion over quasielastic scatterings of the color dipole. We compare our results to the measurement of the ALICE (LHC) collaboration for incoherent J/ψ production

Proton structure fluctuations: constraints from HERA and applications to p + A collisions

We constrain proton structure fluctuations at small-x by comparing with the HERA diffractive vector meson production data, and find that large geometric fluctuations in the proton wave function are needed. Hydrodynamical simulations of proton-nucleus collisions including the fluctuating proton structure are found to be compatible with the momentum anisotropies measured at the LHC.

Next-to-Leading Order Computation of Exclusive Diffractive Light Vector Meson Production in a Saturation Framework

We perform the first next-to-leading order computation of the γ^{(*)}→V (ρ,ϕ,ω) exclusive impact factor in the QCD shock-wave approach and in the most general kinematics. This paves the way to the very first quantitative study of high-energy nucleon and nucleus saturation beyond the leading order for a whole range of small-x exclusive processes, to be measured in ep, eA, pp, and pA collisions at existing and future colliders.

Constraints for proton structure fluctuations from exclusive scattering

We constrain the average density profile of the proton and the amount of event-by-event fluctuations by simultaneously calculating the coherent and incoherent exclusive diffractive vector meson production cross section in deep inelastic scattering. Working within the Color Glass Condensate picture, we find that the gluonic density of the proton must have large geometric fluctuations in order to describe the experimentally measured large incoherent cross section.

Revealing proton shape fluctuations with incoherent diffraction at high energy

The differential cross section of exclusive diffractive vector meson production in electron proton collisions carries important information on the geometric structure of the proton. More specifically, the coherent cross section as a function of the transferred transverse momentum is sensitive to the size of the proton, while the incoherent, or proton dissociative cross section is sensitive to fluctuations of the gluon distribution in coordinate space. We show that at high energies the experimentally measured coherent and incoherent cross sections for the production of $J/\Psi$ mesons are very well reproduced within the color glass condensate framework when strong geometric fluctuations of the gluon distribution in the proton are included. For $\rho$ meson production we also find reasonable agreement. We study in detail the dependence of our results on various model parameters, including the average proton shape, analyze the effect of saturation scale and color charge fluctuations and constrain the degree of geometric fluctuations.

Diffractive dijet production in deep inelastic scattering and photon-hadron collisions in the color glass condensate

We study exclusive dijet production in coherent diffractive processes in deep inelastic scattering and real (and virtual) photon-hadron ($\gamma^{(*)}$-h) collisions in the Color Glass Condensate formalism at leading order. We show that the diffractive dijet cross section is sensitive to the color-dipole orientation in the transverse plane, and is a good probe of possible correlations between the $q\bar{q}$-dipole transverse separation vector $\r$ and the dipole impact parameter $\b$. We also investigate the diffractive dijet azimuthal angle correlations and $t$-distributions in $\gamma^{(*)}$-h collisions and show that they are sensitive to gluon saturation effects in the small-$x$ region. In particular, we show that the $t$-distribution of diffractive dijet photo-production off a proton target exhibits a dip-type structure in the saturation region. This effect is similar to diffractive vector meson production. Besides, at variance with the inclusive case, the effect of saturation leads to stronger azimuthal correlations between the jets.

CGC/saturation approach for soft interactions at high energy: survival probability of central exclusive production

We estimate the value of the survival probability for central exclusive production, in a model, which is based on the CGC/saturation approach. Hard and soft processes are described in the same framework. At LHC energies, we obtain a small value for the survival probability. The source of the small value, is the impact parameter dependence of the hard amplitude. Our model has successfully described a large body of soft data: elastic, inelastic and diffractive cross sections,inclusive production and rapidity correlations, as well as the $t$-dependence of deep inelastic diffractive production of vector mesons

Ballistic protons in incoherent exclusive vector meson production as a measure of rare parton fluctuations at an electron-ion collider.

We argue that the proton multiplicities measured in Roman pot detectors at an electron ion collider can be used to determine centrality classes in incoherent diffractive scattering. Incoherent diffraction probes the fluctuations in the interaction strengths of multiparton Fock states in the nuclear wave functions. In particular, the saturation scale that characterizes this multiparton dynamics is significantly larger in central events relative to minimum bias events. As an application, we study the centrality dependence of incoherent diffractive vector meson production. We identify an observable which is simultaneously very sensitive to centrality triggered parton fluctuations and insensitive to details of the model.

Exclusive vector meson production at high energies and gluon saturation

We systematically study exclusiv2 diffractive (photo)production of vector mesons ($J/\ensuremath{\psi}$, $\ensuremath{\psi}(2s)$, $\ensuremath{\phi}$, and $\ensuremath{\rho}$) off protons in high-energy collisions and investigate whether the production is a sensitive probe of gluon saturation. We confront saturation-based results for diffractive $\ensuremath{\psi}(2s)$ and $\ensuremath{\rho}$ production at HERA and $J/\ensuremath{\psi}$ photoproduction with all available data, including recent work from HERA, ALICE, and LHCb, finding good agreement. In particular, we show that the $t$ distribution of differential cross sections of photoproduction of vector mesons offers a unique opportunity to discriminate among saturation and nonsaturation models. This is due to the emergence of a pronounced dip (or multiple dips) in the $t$ distribution of diffractive photoproduction of vector mesons at relatively large, but potentially accessible $|t|$ that can be traced back to the unitarity features of color dipole amplitude in the saturation regime. We show that in saturation models the dips in $t$ distribution recede towards lower $|t|$ with decreasing mass of the vector meson, increasing energy or decreasing Bjorken-$x$, and decreasing virtuality $Q$. We provide various predictions for exclusive (photo)production of different vector mesons including the ratio of $\ensuremath{\psi}(2s)/J/\ensuremath{\psi}$ at HERA, the LHC, and future colliders.