Exclusive quarkonium photoproduction: Predictions with the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation including the full impact-parameter dependence

Abstract

The ongoing Run 3 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is substantially increasing the luminosity delivered to the experiments during Run 1 and Run 2. The advent of the high-luminosity upgrade of the LHC (Run 4 to 6), as well as the improvements to all detectors, will allow for the collection of an unprecedented amount of data in the next decade. This opens the possibility of performing measurements which have been limited by the smallness of the available data samples. This is the case of multidifferential studies of J/ψ, as well as of ϒ excited states, in exclusive diffractive photon-induced interactions. Here, we present predictions for the cross sections of these processes utilizing the dipole amplitude from the Balitsky-Kovchegov (BK) equation solved in the target rapidity and including the full impact-parameter dependence. Cross sections are computed as a function of the photon-proton center-of-mass energy as well as a function of Mandelstam-t. Ratios of cross sections for different states and for the same state at different Mandelstam-t values are also presented. The contribution to these observables of the nonlinear terms in the BK equation is discussed. Published by the American Physical Society 2025