A method to include exclusive heavy vector-meson production data at small $x$ in global parton analyses

Abstract

We propose a method which allows the inclusion of exclusive heavy vector-meson production data at low $x$ in future global parton analyses. As an example we perform a study within xFitter to determine the gluon parton distribution function (PDF) at next-to-leading order (NLO) at moderate-to-low $x$ using the measurements of exclusive $J/\psi$ production in ep and pp collisions from HERA and LHC. We further study the constraints from the corresponding $\Upsilon$ production process. We finish by discussing the possible effects at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) through incorporation of a K factor for the exclusive heavy vector-meson coefficient function at NLO.