Production In Ultraperipheral Collisions Research Articles

Remarks on charmonium production in ultra-peripheral collisions

In this contribution we discuss the production of charmonium states in two and three photon fusion processes in nucleus - nucleus collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies. In a previous work we showed that the experimental study of these processes is feasible and they can be used to constrain the theoretical decay widths and give information on the non c−c¯ component of these states. Here we discuss some points which were not addressed in that work.

Lepton pair production in ultraperipheral collisions: Toward a precision test of the resummation formalism

Lepton pair production in ultraperipheral collisions: Toward a precision test of the resummation formalism

Azimuthal decorrelation for photon induced dijet production in ultra-peripheral collisions of heavy ions

We study the azimuthal angular decorrelation of the dijet production via photon fusion in ultra-peripheral heavy ion collisions. The impact parameter dependent cross section of quark-antiquark pairs production is derived using the equivalent photon approximation, and the contribution from final-state QCD radiations to the azimuthal angular distribution are calculated within Soft-Collinear Effective Theory. We carry out the QCD resummation of large logarithms of the azimuthal angle as well as the jet radius at next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. In the end we present the normalized differential cross section for azimuthal decorrelation of the dijet pair and find that our results are consistent with the measurements reported by the ATLAS collaboration.

How to measure the magnetic field in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The intense magnetic field created in heavy-ion collisions has often been calculated with classical electrodynamics. This description is thought to be accurate if the occupation number of every field mode is high enough. However, this hypothesis has never been tested. Recently, we have studied a process involving the magnetic field, which we believe to be the simplest: pion production in ultraperipheral collisions. We have started using the classical approximation to study the forward pion production by the magnetic excitation of nucleons through the process N → Δ → N + π. Then, in a subsequent work, we have replaced this classical field by a flux of photons and have calculated the cross section for photoproduction of pions, which is the quantum version of magnetic excitation. We compared the cross sections obtained with both formalisms, which turned out to be compatible with each other. In this note, we review those works, enlarge the discussion and suggest some improvements that can be done to make our results more accurate. We emphasize that these pions could be detected by the ZDC’s installed at ATLAS and ALICE. Since the theoretical uncertainties are under control, this detection could be used to perform an indirect measurement of the magnetic field intensity.

Upcgen: A Monte Carlo simulation program for dilepton pair production in ultra-peripheral collisions of heavy ions

Ultra-peripheral collisions (UPCs) of heavy ions can be used as a clean environment to study two-photon induced interactions such as dilepton pair photoproduction. Recently, precise data on lepton pair production in UPCs were obtained by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC where significant deviations, of up to 20%, from available theoretical predictions were observed. In this work, we present a Monte Carlo event generator, Upcgen, that implements a refined treatment of the photon flux allowing us to improve the agreement with ATLAS data at large dilepton rapidities. Besides, the new generator offers a possibility to study photon polarization effects and set arbitrary values of the lepton anomalous magnetic moment that can be used in the future studies of tau g−2 via ditau production measurements in UPCs. Program summaryProgram Title: UpcgenCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/gbv9s729s9.1Developer's repository link:https://github.com/nburmaso/upcgenLicensing provisions: GPLv3Programming language:▪External routines/libraries: ROOT software toolkit; optionally: Pythia8 and (or) Pythia6 event generator, a compiler with OpenMP support.Nature of problem: In view of deviations between theoretical predictions and new experimental measurements of dilepton production cross sections in ultra-peripheral collisions of heavy ions, a more accurate calculation is needed. Precise predictions also become crucial for the studies related to tau anomalous magnetic moment measurements via ditau pair production in UPCs. We made an attempt to implement a dedicated Monte Carlo event generator with improved calculation of the photon flux that can be used to generate dilepton pairs in UPCs with a possibility to freely change the value of the anomalous magnetic moment.Solution method: Utilizing classes implemented in ROOT, the program calculates the dilepton pair production cross section AA→AA+ℓℓ by folding the elementary γγ→ℓℓ cross section and the two-photon luminosity. Computation of the elementary cross section with an arbitrary value of the anomalous magnetic moment is based on the generalized vertex formalism. The calculation of the two-photon luminosity is based on an improved photon flux treatment based on realistic nuclear form factors. Since the computation of the two-photon luminosity is a time-consuming operation, a corresponding 2D-histogram is cached in a ROOT-file. The dilepton pair production cross section is then used to generate lepton pairs via a Monte Carlo simulation process. For the decay of the taus, Pythia8 or Pythia6 can be used.Additional comments including restrictions and unusual features: The program is aimed on simulation of dilepton pair production in ultra-peripheral collisions of heavy ions in collider experiments. A user can set the energy of the colliding system, change species of incoming nuclei and also tune the anomalous magnetic moment of the lepton to be produced. A possibility to generate a realistic transverse momentum distribution of dilepton pairs is also taken into account.

Lepton pair production in ultraperipheral collisions

The lepton pair production in ultraperipheral collisions is studied in the classical field approximation. We derive a general form of the cross section in terms of photon distributions that depend on the transverse momentum and coordinate based on the wave packet form of nuclear wave functions. Such a general form of the cross section in the classical field approximation contains the results of the generalized equivalent photon approximation (EPA) as well as the corrections beyond EPA in the Born approximation. By rewriting the general form of the cross section in light-cone coordinates, we find a good connection with the transverse momentum dependent distribution factorization formalism in the Born approximation. Our numerical results are consistent with current experimental data.

LHC as a photon-photon collider: Bounds on ΓX→γγ

In the relatively recent CMS data, there is a hint on the existence of a resonance with the mass 28 GeV coupling to muons. Such a resonance should also couple to photons through the fermion loop, therefore it can be searched for in ultraperipheral collisions (UPC) of protons. We set an upper bound on the $X \gamma \gamma$ coupling constant from the data on $\mu^+ \mu^-$ pair production in UPC at the LHC. Our approach can be used for similar resonances should they appear in the future.

Nuclear resonance fluorescence of $$^{208}$$Pb in heavy-ion colliders

In ultraperipheral collisions (UPC) of nuclei the impact of Lorentz-contracted electromagnetic fields of collision partners leads to their excitations. In case of heavy nuclei the emission of neutrons is a main deexcitation channel and forward neutrons emitted in UPC were detected at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by means of Zero Degree Calorimeters. However, the excitation of low-lying discrete nuclear states is also possible in UPC below the neutron separation energy. In this work by means of the Weizsacker-Williams method the data on nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) induced by real photons in 208 Pb are used to model the excitations of discrete levels in colliding nuclei. Due to Lorentz boosts one can expect that deexcitation photons with energies up to 40 GeV and 300 GeV are emitted in very forward direction, respectively, at the LHC and at the Future Circular Collider (FCC-hh). Energy, rapidity and angular distributions of such photons are calculated in the laboratory system, which can be used for monitoring of collider luminosity or triggering particle production in UPC.

Higgs boson production in photon-photon interactions with proton, light-ion, and heavy-ion beams at current and future colliders

The production of the Higgs boson in photon-photon interactions with proton and nucleus beams at three planned or proposed future CERN colliders --- the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), the high-energy LHC (HE-LHC), and the Future Circular Collider (FCC) --- is studied. The cross sections for the process AA$\xrightarrow{\gamma\gamma}$(A)H(A), with the ions A surviving the interaction and the Higgs scalar exclusively produced, are computed with MadGraph 5 modified to include the corresponding elastic $\gamma$ fluxes, for Pb-Pb, Xe-Xe, Kr-Kr, Ar-Ar, O-O, p-Pb, and p-p over the nucleon-nucleon collision energy range $\sqrt{s}\approx 3$--100 TeV. Simulations of the $\gamma\gamma\to H \to b\bar{b}$ decay mode --- including realistic (mis)tagging and reconstruction efficiencies for the final-state b-jets, as well as appropriate kinematical selection criteria to reduce the similarly computed $\gamma\gamma\to b\bar{b},c\bar{c},q\bar{q}$ continuum backgrounds --- have been carried out. Taking into account the expected luminosities for all systems, the yields and significances for observing the Higgs boson in ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) are estimated. At the HL-LHC and HE-LHC, the colliding systems with larger Higgs significance are Ar-Ar(6.3 TeV) and Kr-Kr(12.5 TeV) respectively, but $3\sigma$ evidence for two-photon Higgs production would require 200 and 30 times larger integrated luminosities than those planned today at both machines. Factors of ten can be gained by running for a year, rather than the typical 1-month heavy-ion LHC operation, but the process will likely remain unobserved until a higher energy hadron collider, such as the FCC, is built. In the latter machine, the $5\sigma$ observation of Higgs production in UPCs is feasible in just the first nominal run of Pb-Pb and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 39$ and 63 TeV respectively.

Coherent J/ψ photoproduction in peripheral heavy-ion collisions

In 2015, the ALICE Collaboration reported the first measurement of an excess in the yield of at very low transverse momentum () in the forward rapidity region (2.5 < y < 4) in peripheral lead-lead (Pb-Pb) collisions at at the CERN LHC. The coherent photoproduction was proposed as the potential underlying physics mechanism. This is known to be the main production mechanism for low- production in ultra-peripheral collisions, which are dominated by electromagnetic interactions. However, the observation of a large effect in more central collisions that are dominated by the hadronic interactions was quite surprising. This article represents a proceeding contribution on the preliminary results from Pb-Pb collisions at shown in a poster during the National Congress of the French Physics Society in July 2019.

A generator of forward neutrons for ultra-peripheral collisions: [formula omitted

The study of photon-induced reactions in collisions of heavy nuclei at RHIC and the LHC has become an important direction of the research program of these facilities in recent years. In particular, the production of vector mesons in ultra-peripheral collisions (UPC) has been intensively studied. Owing to the intense photon fluxes, the two nuclei participating in such processes undergo electromagnetic dissociation producing neutrons at beam rapidities. Here, we introduce the nOOn (pronounced noon) Monte Carlo program, which generates events containing such neutrons. nOOn is a ROOT based program that can be interfaced with existing generators of vector meson production in UPC or with theoretical calculations of such photonuclear processes. nOOn can also be easily integrated with the simulation programs of the experiments at RHIC and the LHC. Program summaryProgram Title:nOOnProgram Files doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/jynt6cvhjk.1Licencing provisions: GNU GPLv3Programming language: C++External routines: The generator is based on ROOT.Nature of problem: The electromagnetic fields of nuclei at RHIC and the LHC can be described as a flux of quasi-real photons. These photons may interact with one of the nucleus in the opposite beam. There are events of interest where two independent interactions occur, one involving a hard scattering and one from the exchange of soft photons. As a result of the latter, the nucleus get excited and upon de-excitation it may emit neutrons, which are boosted to beam rapidities. The program computes the probability of neutron emission based on existing measurements and some mild modelling; it then generates neutrons in a per-event basis.Solution method: The break-up probabilities are computed using existing data and stored in ROOT objects (graphs and histograms). Photon energies from the accompanying hard process, e.g. vector meson production, are loaded into the program and a catalogue of specific break-up probabilities is constructed. The number of neutrons emitted in the event is generated and the neutrons are produced and boosted into the laboratory frame. The output is a TTree with a TClonesArray of TParticles per event, which can be easily interfaced to the simulation programs of the RHIC and LHC collaborations.Restrictions: At the moment only emission from Pb is available.

Probing the linear polarization of photons in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions

We propose to measure the linear polarization of the external electromagnetic fields of a relativistic heavy ion through azimuthal asymmetries in dilepton production in ultraperipheral collisions. The asymmetries estimated with the equivalent photon approximation are shown to be sizable.

Observation of Centrality-Dependent Acoplanarity for Muon Pairs Produced via Two-Photon Scattering in Pb+Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.

This Letter presents a measurement of γγ→μ^{+}μ^{-} production in Pb+Pb collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 0.49 nb^{-1}. The azimuthal angle and transverse momentum correlations between the muons are measured as a function of collision centrality. The muon pairs are produced from γγ through the interaction of the large electromagnetic fields of the nuclei. The contribution from background sources of muon pairs is removed using a template fit method. In peripheral collisions, the muons exhibit a strong back-to-back correlation consistent with previous measurements of muon pair production in ultraperipheral collisions. The angular correlations are observed to broaden significantly in central collisions. The modifications are qualitatively consistent with rescattering of the muons while passing through the hot matter produced in the collision.

Coherent and incoherent J/ψ photonuclear production in an energy-dependent hot-spot model

In a previous publication, we have presented a model for the photoproduction of $\mathrm{J/}\psi$ vector mesons off protons, where the proton structure in the impact-parameter plane is described by an energy-dependent hot-spot profile. Here we extend this model to study the photonuclear production of $\mathrm{J/}\psi$ vector mesons in coherent and incoherent interactions of heavy nuclei. We study two methods to extend the model to the nuclear case: using the standard Glauber-Gribov formalism and using geometric scaling to obtain the nuclear saturation scale. We find that the incoherent cross section changes sizably with the inclusion of subnucleonic hot spots, and that this change is energy dependent. We propose to search for this behavior by measuring the ratio of the incoherent to coherent cross section at different energies. We compare the results of our model to results from RHIC and from the Run 1 at the LHC finding a satisfactory agreement. We also present predictions for the LHC at the new energies reached in Run 2. The predictions include $\mathrm{J/}\psi$ production in ultra-peripheral collisions, as well as the recently observed photonuclear production in peripheral collisions.

Coherent and incoherent Upsilon production in ultraperipheral collisions at the Large Hadron Collider

The exclusive photoproduction of $\Upsilon (nS)$ states were calculated in ultra-peripheral collisions for coherent and incoherent process in PbPb at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$= 5.5 TeV. Different dipole models were compared in the theoretical framework of light-cone color dipole formalism. Moreover, it was calculated the differential cross section for the Upsilon states and their total cross section for two intervals of rapidity: $|y|\leq 4$ 4 and $ 2 \le$ y $\le 4.5$. A systematic study is done on the theoretical uncertainties associated to the production and predictions are presented for the first time for the incoherent cross section of the radially excited states.

Exclusive Higgs boson production through electromagnetic process in p–p and Pb–Pb ultra-peripheral collisions

The Higgs boson production through electromagnetic process in the exclusive p–p and Pb–Pb ultra-peripheral collisions is calculated. According to the condition of conference, the equivalent photon approximation formulation is used, and the limitations of the variables in the calculations are obtained. Three kinds of the equivalent photon spectrums are considered: the plane wave form, the approximate plane wave forms of Dress et al., and the semi-classical form. For comparison, the gluon–gluon fusion and intrinsic heavy flavors contributions are presented. The numerical results show that, the plane wave photon spectrum with correct limitations of the variables provides more reasonable results for the exclusive p+p→p+p+H and Pb+Pb→Pb+Pb+H processes, and the electromagnetic process provides meaningful contributions for the exclusive Higgs production in ultra-peripheral collisions.

Lepton-pair production in ultraperipheral collisions at AFTER@LHC

We investigate the potentialities offered by the study of lepton-pair production in ultraperipheral collisions at a fixed-target experiment using the proton and ion LHC beams. In these collisions, exclusive or semi-exclusive lepton-pair production can be used as luminosity monitor as well as a check of the equivalent-photon approximation, via the measurement of the Bethe-Heitler cross section. It can also serve as a probe of the inner hadron structure via the measurement of the lepton-pair azimuthal asymmetry which is sensitive to the timelike virtual Compton scattering. We also briefly discuss the possibility offered by the study of eta(c) production. Finally, we outline the possibilities for lepton-pair production by Pomeron-Odderon fusion in exclusive pp and pA collisions.

Vector meson production in ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC

Связь между сечениями реакций с участием фотонов на HERA и ультрапериферическими столкновениями на Большом адронном коллайдере исследована с помощью модели полюсов Редже для рождения векторных мезонов, хорошо описывающей экспериментальные данные ускорителя HERA. Получены предсказания для будущих экспериментов по рождению $J/\psi$ и других векторных мезонов.

Vector meson production in ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC

By using a Regge-pole model for vector meson production (VMP), successfully describing the HERA data, we analyse the correlation between VMP cross sections in photon-induced reactions at HERA and those in ultra-peripheral collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Predictions for future experiments on production of $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2S)$ are presented.

Exclusive J/ψ production in ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC: constraints on the gluon distributions in the proton and nuclei

Using the framework of collinear factorization in perturbative QCD (pQCD), we analyze the recent data of the LHCb and ALICE collaborations on exclusive photoproduction of J/{\psi} in ultraperipheral pp and AA collisions, respectively. We demonstrate that the simultaneous analysis of the proton and Pb data allows us to reduce the ambiguity of the pQCD description of the $\gamma p \to J/\psi p$ and $\gamma A \to J/\psi p$ cross sections and, hence, to place additional constraints on the gluon distributions in the nucleon and nuclei at small x. We also make predictions for the cross section of coherent exclusive photoproduction of J/{\psi} in nucleus-nucleus ultraperipheral collisions accompanied by the electromagnetic excitation of nuclei and the subsequent neutron emission.