Measurement of coherent exclusive J/ψ → μ+μ− production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.36 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

The ATLAS experiment has performed a measurement of coherent exclusive J/ψ → μ+μ− production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.36 TeV. The data was recorded at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during 2023, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 79 μb−1. Exclusive J/ψ candidates were selected with a dedicated track-sensitive trigger based on the ATLAS transition radiation tracker. The analysis involves reconstruction of the dimuon invariant mass based on muon tracks from the inner detector, as the muon transverse momentum range of interest precludes the use of the standard muon reconstruction and identification algorithms. Differential cross sections are measured as a function of J/ψ rapidity and are compared with theoretical predictions. After extrapolation to sNN=5.02 TeV, they are also compared with previous measurements performed by other experiments using data from LHC Run 2. While the results agree reasonably well with theoretical predictions, they are in tension with previous Run-2 results for the central rapidity region.