Photoproduction of vector mesons in ultra-peripheral p–Pb and Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC with the ALICE experiment

Vector mesons are copiously produced in ultra-peripheral collisions. In these collisions, the impact parameter is larger than the sum of the radii of the two projectiles, implying that electromagnetic processes become dominant. The cross section of production of vector mesons is expected to be sensitive to the gluon distribution and can therefore probe nuclear gluon shadowing (Pb–Pb) and the gluon structure function in the nucleon (p-Pb). The ALICE Collaboration has performed the first measurements of the production of ρ0, J/ψ and ψ/(2S) in Pb–Pb ultra-peripheral collision as well as the cross section for exclusive J/ψ photoproduction off protons in ultra-peripheral proton-lead collisions at the LHC. The results are compared to the STARLIGHT Monte Carlo and to QCD based models.