Investigating the exclusive vector meson photoproduction in nuclear collisions at Run 2 LHC energies

Abstract

We investigate the theoretical uncertainty on the predictions for the photoproduction of $\rho$ and $J/\Psi$ states in nucleus-nucleus collisions at Run 2 LHC energies using the Color Dipole formalism. The results for rapidity distributions and total cross sections are presented. Moreover, we compare directly the theoretical results to the recent preliminary data from ALICE collaboration on $\rho$ production in $PbPb$ collisions at central rapidity.