Mapping color fluctuations in the photon in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider

TL;DR

This paper models color fluctuations in the photon wave function and predicts their effects on inelastic photon-nucleus scattering, providing new insights into the distribution of wounded nucleons and related observables at the LHC.

Contribution

It introduces the first predictions for the distribution of wounded nucleons in inelastic photon-nucleus scattering considering color fluctuations.

Findings

Color fluctuations cause a significant increase in the probability of events with one or many wounded nucleons.

Predictions show how different scales and CFs affect total transverse energy and other observables.

Results can be tested in ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC to map color fluctuations.

Abstract

We model effects of color fluctuations (CFs) in the light-cone photon wave function and for the first time make predictions for the distribution over the number of wounded nucleons $\nu$ in the inelastic photon-nucleus scattering. We show that CFs lead to a dramatic enhancement of this distribution at $\nu=1$ and large $\nu > 10$. We also study the implications of different scales and CFs in the photon wave function on the total transverse energy $\Sigma E_T$ and other observables in inelastic $\gamma A$ scattering with different triggers. Our predictions can be tested in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC and will help to map CFs, whose first indications have already been observed at the LHC.