The ALICE Collaboration has measured the energy dependence of exclusive photoproduction of $J/\psi$ vector mesons off proton targets in ultra-peripheral p-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV. The e$^+$e$^-$ and $\mu^+\mu^-$ decay channels are used to measure the cross section as a function of the rapidity of the $J/\psi$ in the range $-2.5 < y < 2.7$, corresponding to an energy in the $\gamma$p centre-of-mass in the interval $40 < W_{\gamma\mathrm{p}}<550$ GeV. The measurements, which are consistent with a power law dependence of the exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction cross section, are compared to previous results from HERA and the LHC and to several theoretical models. They are found to be compatible with previous measurements.
We present the first measurement at the LHC of exclusive J/$\psi$ photoproduction off protons, in ultra-peripheral proton-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV. Events are selected with a dimuon pair produced either in the rapidity interval, in the laboratory frame, $2.5<y<4$ (p-Pb) or $-3.6<y<-2.6$ (Pb--p), and no other particles observed in the ALICE acceptance. The measured cross sections $\sigma (\gamma + {\rm p} \rightarrow J/\psi + {\rm p})$ are 33.2 $\pm$ 2.2 (stat) $\pm$ 3.1 (syst) $\pm$ 0.7 (theo) nb in p-Pb and 284 $\pm$ 36 (stat) $^{+27}_{-32}$ (syst) $\pm$ 26 (theo) nb in Pb-p collisions. We measure this process up to about 700 GeV in the $\gamma {\rm p}$ centre-of-mass, which is a factor of two larger than the highest energy studied at HERA. The data are consistent with a power law dependence of the $J/\psi$ photoproduction cross section in $\gamma {\rm p}$ energies from about 20 to 700 GeV, or equivalently, from Bjorken-$x$ between $\sim 2\times 10^{-2}$ to $\sim 2\times 10^{-5}$, thus indicating no significant change in the gluon density behaviour of the proton between HERA and LHC energies.
Central exclusive and semiexclusive production of $\pi^+\pi^-$ pairs is measured with the CMS detector in proton-proton collisions at the LHC at center-of-mass energies of 5.02 and 13 TeV. The theoretical description of these nonperturbative processes, which have not yet been measured in detail at the LHC, poses a significant challenge to models. The two pions are measured and identified in the CMS silicon tracker based on specific energy loss, whereas the absence of other particles is ensured by calorimeter information. The total and differential cross sections of exclusive and semiexclusive central $\pi^+\pi^-$ production are measured as functions of invariant mass, transverse momentum, and rapidity of the $\pi^+\pi^-$ system in the fiducial region defined as transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}(\pi)$ $>$ 0.2 GeV and pseudorapidity $|\eta(\pi)|$ $<$ 2.4. The production cross sections for the four resonant channels f$_0(500)$, $\rho^0(770)$, f$_0(980)$, and f$_2(1270)$ are extracted using a simple model. These results represent the first measurement of this process at the LHC collision energies of 5.02 and 13 TeV.
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