Diffractive photoproduction of radially excited psi(2S) mesons in photon-Pomeron reactions in PbPb collisions at the CERN LHC

TL;DR

This paper studies the production of excited psi(2S) mesons in lead-lead collisions at the LHC using a light-cone dipole model, comparing predictions with recent experimental data.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed theoretical analysis of psi(2S) photoproduction in heavy ion collisions at LHC energies using the light-cone dipole formalism.

Findings

Predictions for psi(2S) production cross sections at 2.76 TeV.

Analysis of coherent and incoherent contributions.

Comparison with ALICE experimental data.

Abstract

In this work we investigate the photoproduction of radially excited vector mesons off nuclei in heavy ion relativistic collisions. In particular, we analyze the exclusive photoproduction of psi(2S) off nuclei, evaluating the coherent and the incoherent contributions to that process. The theoretical framework used in the present analysis is the light-cone dipole formalism and predictions are done for PbPb collisions at the CERN-LHC energy of 2.76 TeV. The theoretical uncertainties are analyzed and comparison is also done to the recent ALICE Collaboration data for the psi(1S) state photoproduction.