Small-x physics at coherent pA/AA interactions at LHC

Abstract

We report on our recent investigations in photonuclear production of heavy quarks and vector mesons in ultraperipheral collisions at nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus reactions. They are initiated by quasi-real photons coming from one of the nuclei or hadron in interactions taking place at large impact parameter. We focus on the role played by the high energy theoretical/phenomenological approaches in photon-nuclei scattering, namely the strength of parton saturation phenomenon and high energy nuclear shadowing. In particular, our theoretical predictions are compared with the recent experimental measurements on coherent ρ (STAR) and J/Ψ (PHENIX) photoproduction at RHIC and estimates for LHC are given.