A phenomenological study of the exclusive vector meson photoproduction within the discrete BFKL approach is performed. We estimate the BFKL amplitude in terms of a discrete set of eigenfunctions and use the HERA [Formula: see text] data to constrain the free parameters of the model. As a consequence, we derive a parameter free prediction of the energy dependence of the exclusive vector meson cross section. We demonstrate that the HERA and LHCb data for the exclusive [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] photoproduction are quite well describe in a large energy range. However, the model overestimates the precise LHCb data for the smallest values of [Formula: see text], which can be interpreted as an indication of the onset of nonlinear (saturation) effects in the QCD dynamics.
Energy-dependent hotspots model via vector meson photoproduction
