Measurement of an excess in the yield of J/$\psi$ at very low-$p_{\rm T}$ in Pb--Pb collisions with the ALICE detector

Abstract

We report on the measurement of J/$\psi$ production at very low transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T} < $ 300 MeV/$c$) in Pb--Pb collisions performed with the ALICE detector at the LHC. We find an excess in the yield of J/$\psi$ with respect to expectations from hadronic production. Coherent photo-production of J/$\psi$ is proposed as a plausible origin of this excess. We show the nuclear modification factor of very low-$p_{\rm T}$ J/$\psi$ as a function of centrality. Then we measure the J/$\psi$ coherent photoproduction cross section in peripheral events assuming that it is the mechanism at the origin of the measured excess. It's worth noting that the observation of J/$\psi$ coherent photoproduction in Pb--Pb collisions at impact parameters smaller than twice the nuclear radius has never been observed so far and would open new theoretical challenges.