Coherent photoproduction of light vector mesons off nuclear targets in the dipole picture

Abstract

We study the coherent photoproduction of light vector mesons in Pb-Pb collisions in the framework of color dipole approach. We employ the Glauber--Gribov formalism supplemented by an effective suppression factor $R_G$ accounting for the gluon shadowing correction. We adjust the latter to reproduce the deep inelastic structure function $F_2$ (E665) and $ρ$ meson photoproduction (ALICE) data. We achieve a good description of the available data points with $R_G = 0.85$ at scale $M_ρ^2/4 = 0.15$ GeV$^2$. In addition, employing this suppression factor, we present predictions for coherent $ρ(2S)$, $ω(1S,2S)$ and $ϕ(1S,2S)$ photoproduction observables using the holographic vector meson wave functions.