Abstract

Measurements of exclusive J/ψ, ψ (2s), and electron-positron (e+e−) pair photoproduction in Au + Au ultraperipheral collisions are reported by the STAR experiment at √sNN = 200 GeV. We report several first measurements at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which are (i) J/ψ photoproduction with large momentum transfer up to 2.2 (GeV/c)2 , (ii) coherent J/ψ photoproduction associated with neutron emissions from nuclear breakup, (iii) the rapidity dependence of incoherent J/ψ photoproduction, (iv) the ψ (2s) photoproduction cross section at midrapidity, and (v) e+e− pair photoproduction up to high invariant mass of 6 GeV/c2 . For measurement (ii), the coherent J/ψ total cross section of γ + Au → J/ψ + Au as a function of the center-of-mass energy Wγ N has been obtained without photon energy ambiguities. The data are quantitatively compared with the Monte Carlo models STARlight, Sartre, BeAGLE, and theoretical calculations of gluon saturation with color glass condensate, nuclear shadowing with leading twist approximation, quantum electrodynamics, and the next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD. At the photon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 25.0 GeV, the coherent and incoherent J/ψ cross sections of Au nuclei are found to be 71% ± 10% and 36% ± 7%, respectively, of that of free protons. These data provide an important experimental constraint for nuclear parton distribution functions and a unique opportunity to advance the understanding of the nuclear modification effect at the top RHIC energy.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Notes/Citation Information

©2024 American Physical Society

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.110.014911

Funding Information

We thank the RHIC Operations Group and RCF at BNL, the NERSC Center at LBNL, and the Open Science Grid consortium for providing resources and support. This work was supported in part by the Office of Nuclear Physics within the U.S. DOE Office of Science, the U.S. National Science Foundation, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Science, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Ministry of Education, the Higher Education Sprout Project by Ministry of Education at NCKU, the National Research Foundation of Korea, Czech Science Foundation and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office, New National Excellency Programme of the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, the National Science Centre and WUT ID-UB of Poland, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, German Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung and Technologie (BMBF), Helmholtz Association, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID) of Chile.

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