Exclusive $J/\psi$, $\psi(2s)$, and $e^{+}e^{-}$ pair production in Au$+$Au ultra-peripheral collisions at RHIC

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurements of exclusive $J/\psi$, $\psi(2s)$, and $e^{+}e^{-}$ pair photoproduction in Au+Au ultra-peripheral collisions at RHIC, providing new insights into nuclear gluon distributions and quantum chromodynamics phenomena.

Contribution

It presents novel experimental data on various exclusive photoproduction processes at RHIC, including large momentum transfer and neutron-associated events, and compares these with theoretical models.

Findings

Measured $J/\psi$ photoproduction with high momentum transfer.

Obtained coherent $J/\psi$ cross section without photon energy ambiguity.

Provided data constraining nuclear parton distribution functions.

Abstract

Measurements of exclusive $J/\psi$, $\psi(2s)$, and electron-positron ($e^{+}e^{-}$) pair photoproduction in Au$+$Au ultra-peripheral collisions are reported by the STAR experiment at $\sqrt{s_{_\mathrm{NN}}}=200~\rm{GeV}$. We report several first measurements at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider, which are i) $J/\psi$ photoproduction with large momentum transfer up to $2.2~\rm{(GeV/c)^{2}}$, ii) coherent $J/\psi$ photoproduction associated with neutron emissions from nuclear breakup, iii) the rapidity dependence of incoherent $J/\psi$ photoproduction, iv) the $\psi(2s)$ photoproduction cross section at mid-rapidity, and v) $e^{+}e^{-}$ pair photoproduction up to high invariant mass of 6 $\rm{GeV/c^2}$. For measurement ii), the coherent $J/\psi$ total cross section of $\gamma^{\ast} + \rm{Au} \rightarrow J/\psi + \rm{Au}$ as a function of the center-of-mass energy $W_{\rm{\gamma* N}}$ has been obtained without photon energy ambiguities. The data are quantitatively compared with the Monte Carlo models STARlight, Sartre, BeAGLE, and theoretical calculations of gluon saturation with color glass condensate, nuclear shadowing with leading twist approximation, Quantum Electrodynamics, and the Next-to-Leading Order perturbative QCD. At the photon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 25.0 GeV, the coherent and incoherent $J/\psi$ cross sections of Au nuclei are found to be $71\pm10\%$ and $36\pm7\%$, respectively, of that of free protons. These data provide an important experimental constraint for nuclear parton distribution functions and a unique opportunity to advance the understanding of the nuclear modification effect at the top RHIC energy.