Coherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction at forward rapidity in ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV

Abstract

The ALICE collaboration performed the first rapidity-differential measurement of coherent J/ψ photoproduction in ultra-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV. The J/ψ is detected via its dimuon decay in the forward rapidity region (−4.0 < y <−2.5 ) for events where the hadronic activity is required to be minimal. The analysis is based on an event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 750 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ . The cross section for coherent J/ψ production is presented in six rapidity bins. The results are compared with theoretical models for coherent J/ψ photoproduction. These comparisons indicate that gluon shadowing effects play a role in the photoproduction process. The ratio of ψ′ to J/ψ coherent photoproduction cross sections was measured and found to be consistent with that measured for photoproduction off protons