Photon-hadron interactions in pA/AA collisions and the QCD dynamics

Abstract

In this contribution we study the photoproduction of heavy quarks in coherent proton-nucleus (pA) and nucleus-nucleus (AA) interactions for RHIC and LHC energies and analyze if this process can be used to determine the QCD dynamics at high energies. The integrated cross section and rapidity distribution are estimated. Our results indicate that the nonlinear dynamics can be proven in those reactions, which are well suited for studing saturation effects.