# Probing double parton scattering via associated open charm and bottom production in ultraperipheral $pA$ collisions

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to study double-parton scattering by analyzing associated charm and bottom quark production in ultra-peripheral proton-nucleus collisions, providing insights into gluon distributions at small-x.

## Contribution

It proposes a novel channel for DPS studies using charm and bottom production in ultra-peripheral collisions, enabling direct probing of the double-gluon distribution and testing the DPS factorization.

## Key findings

- Theoretical predictions for DPS contributions at LHC energies.
- Computed energy-independent effective cross section dependent on photon momentum fraction.
- Demonstrated the potential of this channel to access small-x gluon distributions.

## Abstract

In this article, we propose a novel channel for phenomenological studies of the double-parton scattering (DPS) based upon associated production of charm $c\bar{c}$ and bottom $b\bar{b}$ quark pairs in well-separated rapidity intervals in ultra-peripheral high-energy proton-nucleus collisions. This process provides a direct access to the double-gluon distribution in the proton at small-$x$ and enables one to test the factorised DPS pocket formula. We have made the corresponding theoretical predictions for the DPS contribution to this process at typical LHC energies and beyond and we compute the energy-independent (but photon momentum fraction dependent) effective cross section.