Slicing Pomerons in ultraperipheral collisions using forward neutrons from nuclear breakup
- Resource Type
- Working Paper
- Authors
- Alvioli, M.; Guzey, V.; Strikman, M.
- Source
- Subject
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Nuclear Experiment
- Language
We argue that measurements of forward neutrons from nuclear breakup in inclusive high energy photon-nucleus ($\gamma A$) scattering provide a novel complementary way to study small-$x$ dynamics of QCD in heavy-ion ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs). Using the leading twist approximation to nuclear shadowing, we calculate the distribution over the number of evaporation neutrons produced in $\gamma Pb$ collisions at the LHC. We demonstrate that it allows one to determine the distribution over the number of wounded nucleons (inelastic collisions), which constrains the mechanism of nuclear shadowing of nuclear parton distributions.
Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures