Speaker
Description
In this talk, we present our results on $\eta_c\gamma$ and $\chi_c\gamma$ photoproduction in middle- and high-energy experiments, which can be studied in ultraperipheral kinematics at the LHC and the future EIC. Due to the onset of saturation in the small-$x$ region, the interaction of heavy quarks with the gluonic field of a nuclear target is described in the framework of the Color Glass Condensate framework. In this model, the cross section of the proposed $2\to 3$ processes is fully determined by the dipole forward-scattering amplitude, making them a probe for testing different parametrizations of this fundamental phenomenological object.
As a main result, we present numerical estimates of the cross sections and expected counting rates, based on the technical specifications of experimental setups such as the LHC and the future EIC. We found that the cross sections are sufficiently large to allow for a dedicated experimental study. Furthermore, our results are on par with recent predictions for this channel obtained in the collinear factorization approach. Along with that, we also estimated the role of these processes as a potential background to $\eta_c$ and $\chi_c$ photoproduction, which are considered among the possible tools for studying $t$-channel odderons. We found that the contribution from meson-photon production (with an undetected photon) is comparable to the expected odderon contribution in the small momentum transfer kinematics.
This talk is partially based on publication Phys.Rev.D 111 (2025) 5, 056024 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.056024)
| Track | 6: Heavy Quarks (including top and flavour physics) |
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