Inclusive heavy meson photoproduction in $pPb$ and $PbPb$ collisions

TL;DR

This paper investigates heavy meson photoproduction in ultraperipheral $pPb$ and $PbPb$ collisions at the LHC using the color dipole formalism, providing new predictions for $B^0$-mesons and revisiting $D^0$-meson production.

Contribution

It introduces the first predictions for $B^0$-meson photoproduction and analyzes the impact of charm fragmentation and $b ightarrow D^0$ transitions in heavy meson production.

Findings

Predictions for $B^0$-meson photoproduction are provided for the first time.

The study highlights the importance of heavy meson photoproduction in constraining high-energy hadronic structure.

The impact of different gluon distribution models and fragmentation treatments on meson production is quantified.

Abstract

The inclusive photoproduction of heavy mesons in ultraperipheral $pPb$ and $PbPb$ collisions at the LHC energies is investigated considering the color dipole $S$-matrix formalism and assuming distinct models for the unintegrated gluon distribution, based on different assumptions for the description of the QCD dynamics. In particular, predictions for the $B^0$-meson photoproduction are presented here for the first time. The study of the $D^0$-meson photoproduction is revisited by estimating the impact of the treatment of the heavy charm fragmentation on the predictions and extended for $pPb$ collisions. Moreover, the contribution associated with the $b \rightarrow D^0$ transition is estimated. Our results indicate that a future experimental analysis of the heavy meson photoproduction will provide important constrains on the description of the hadronic structure at high energies.