First measurement of the $|t|$-dependence of incoherent J/$\psi$ photonuclear production

Abstract

The first measurement of the cross section for incoherent photonuclear production of J/$\psi$ vector mesons as a function of the Mandelstam $|t|$ variable is presented. The measurement was carried out with the ALICE detector at midrapidity, $|y|<0.8$, using ultra-peripheral collisions of Pb nuclei at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 5.02$ TeV. This rapidity interval corresponds to a Bjorken-$x$ range $(0.3-1.4)\times 10^{-3}$. Cross sections are given in five $|t|$ intervals in the range $0.04<|t|<1$ GeV$^2$ and compared to the predictions by different models. Models that ignore quantum fluctuations of the gluon density in the colliding hadron predict a $|t|$-dependence of the cross section much steeper than in data. The inclusion of such fluctuations in the same models provides a better description of the data.