Mass dependence of vector meson photoproduction off protons and nuclei within the energy-dependent hot-spot model

We study the photoproduction of vector mesons off proton and off nuclear targets. We work within the colour dipole model in an approach that includes subnucleon degrees of freedom, so-called hot spots, whose positions in the impact-parameter plane change event-by-event. The key feature of our model is that the number of hot spots depends on the energy of the photon--target interaction. Predictions are presented for exclusive and dissociative production of $\rho^{0}$, $\mathrm{J/}\psi$, and $\Upsilon(1S)$ off protons, as well as for coherent and incoherent photoproduction of $\rho^{0}$ off nuclear targets, where Xe, Au, and Pb nuclei are considered. We find that the mass dependence of dissociative production off protons as a function of the energy of the interaction provides a further handle to search for saturation effects at HERA, the LHC and future colliders. We also find that the coherent photonuclear production of $\rho^{0}$ is sensitive to fluctuations in the subnucleon degrees of freedom at RHIC and LHC energies.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. Typo in legend of figs. 1 and 2 correcte

Energy dependence of dissociative J/ψ photoproduction as a signature of gluon saturation at the LHC

We have developed a model in which the quantum fluctuations of the proton structure are characterised by hot spots, whose number grows with decreasing Bjorken-x. Our model reproduces the F2(x,Q2) data from HERA at the relevant scale, as well as the exclusive and dissociative J/ψ photoproduction data from H1 and ALICE. Our model predicts that for Wγp≈500GeV, the dissociative J/ψ cross section reaches a maximum and then decreases steeply with energy, which is in qualitatively good agreement to a recent observation that the dissociative J/ψ background in the exclusive J/ψ sample measured in photoproduction by ALICE decreases as energy increases. Our prediction provides a clear signature for gluon saturation at LHC energies

Diffractive deeply inelastic scattering in future electron-ion colliders

The impact of nonlinear effects in the diffractive observables that will be measured in future electron-ion collisions is investigated. We present, for the first time, the predictions for the diffractive structure function and reduced cross sections derived using the solution to the Balitsky--Kovchegov equation with the collinearly-improved kernel and including the impact-parameter dependence. We demonstrate that the contribution of the diffractive events is enhanced in nuclear collisions and that the study of the ratio between the nuclear and proton predictions will be useful to discriminate among different models of the dipole-target scattering amplitude and, consequently, will allow us to constrain the description of QCD dynamics in parton densities.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Nuclear Suppression of Dileptons at Large xF

We study a significant nuclear suppression of the relative production rates (p(d)+A)/(p+d(p)) for the Drell-Yan process at large Feynman xF. Since this is the region of minimal values for the light-front momentum fraction variable x2 in the target nucleus, it is tempting to interpret this as a manifestation of coherence or of a Color Glass Condensate. We demonstrate, however, that this suppression mechanism is governed by the energy conservation restrictions in multiple parton rescatterings in nuclear matter. To eliminate nuclear shadowing effects coming from the coherence, we calculate nuclear suppression in the light-cone dipole approach at large dilepton masses and at energy accessible at FNAL. Our calculations are in a good agreement with data from the E772 experiment. Using the same mechanism we predict also nuclear suppression at forward rapidities in the RHIC energy range.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Talk given at the International Conference HADRON STRUCTURE '09, Tatranska Strba, Slovakia, 30 Aug - 3 Sep 200