A study on the isolated photon production in nuclear collisions at the CERN-LHC energies

An analysis of prompt photon production in high energy nuclear collisions at the LHC is performed within the parton saturation picture taking into account the updated phenomenological color dipole models. Comparison between $\langle N_{coll}\rangle$ scaling for hard scattering in heavy-ion collisions and the $N_{part}$-scaling based on geometric scaling arguments has been done. The predictions are parameter free in the first case whereas a dependence on the constant of proportionality $\kappa$ between the number of participants and the nuclear saturation scale appears in the second case. This parameter has been analyzed in the prompt photon spectrum at small transverse momentum even though no fitting procedure was performed. Results are confronted with the measurements made by the ALICE, ATLAS, and CMS experiments in terms of photon transverse momentum at different rapidity bins. We show that the prompt photon production exhibits distinct scalings in $AA$ events associated to geometrical properties of the collision and can be properly addressed in the color dipole formalism. Based on the $N_{part}$-scaling, an analytical parametrization for the invariant cross section is provided and employed to predict the $x_T$-scaling in measurements. For $\kappa$ of order of unit the theoretical scaling curve correctly describes data in the range $x_T\leq 5\times 10^{-2}$.

Inclusive prompt photon-jet correlations as a probe of gluon saturation in electron-nucleus scattering at small x

We compute the differential cross-section for inclusive prompt photon+quark production in deeply inelastic scattering of electrons off nuclei at small x (e + A DIS) in the framework of the Color Glass Condensate effective field theory. The result is expressed as a convolution of the leading order (in the strong coupling αs) impact factor for the process and universal dipole matrix elements, in the limit of hard photon transverse momentum relative to the nuclear saturation scale Qs,A(x). We perform a numerical study of this process for the kinematics of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), exploring in particular the azimuthal angle correlations between the final state photon and quark. We observe a systematic suppression and broadening pattern of the back-to-back peak in the relative azimuthal angle distribution, as the saturation scale is increased by replacing proton targets with gold nuclei. Our results suggest that photon+jet final states in inclusive e + A DIS at high energies are in general a promising channel for exploring gluon saturation that is complementary to inclusive and diffractive dijet production. They also provide a sensitive empirical test of the universality of dipole matrix elements when compared to identical measurements in proton-nucleus collisions. However because photon+jet correlations at small x in EIC kinematics require jet reconstruction at small k⊥, it will be important to study their feasibility relative to photon-hadron correlations.

The color dipole picture for prompt photon production in pp and pPb collisions at the CERN-LHC

A study on the prompt photon production within the QCD color dipole picture with emphasis in pp and pA collisions at the LHC energy regimes is performed. We present predictions for the differential cross section as a function of photon transverse momentum at different rapidity bins considering updated phenomenological color dipole models, which take into account the QCD gluon saturation physics. The results are directly compared to the recent experimental measurements provided by CMS and ATLAS Collaborations, showing a reasonable agreement in all rapidity bins with no free parameters. Special attention is given to the IPSAT model given its good description of the data in all rapidity bins from low- to high-$$p_{T}$$ p T ranges. As a result, a free-parameter approach has succeeded in describing the LHC data for prompt photon production, while new predictions for the 13-TeV data is presented in view of new data to confirm such prospect.

Angular decorrelations in γ + 2jets events at high energies in the parton Reggeization approach

We study associated production of prompt photon and two jets at high energies in the framework of the parton Reggeization approach (PRA), which is based on multi-Regge factorization of hard processes and Lipatov’s effective theory of Reggeized gluons and quarks. In this approach, initial-state off-shell effects and transverse momenta of initial partons are included in a gauge-invariant way. We compute azimuthal angle difference spectra in [Formula: see text] + 2[Formula: see text]jets events and compare results with data from D0 Collaboration at the Tevatron. It was found that agreement between predictions and data can be achieved only under assumption on strong violation in transverse momentum ordering during initial-state quantum chromodynamics (QCD) evolution which corresponds multi-Regge kinematical regime instead of DGLAP picture.

Study of the Polarized Gluon Structure of a Proton via Prompt-Photon Production in the SPD Experiment at the NICA Collider

Photons produced in the hard scattering of partons, named prompt photons, provide information about the internal structure of hadrons. The NICA collider has the possibility to provide new data to study the production of prompt photons in non-polarized and polarized proton-proton collisions, which gives an access to spin-dependent parton distribution functions for gluons. Unpolarized and polarized physics with prompt photons and capabilities of the SPD detector in such measurements is discussed.