The QCD pomeron in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions : III. Photonuclear production of heavy quarks

Abstract

We calculate the photonuclear production of heavy quarks in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions. The integrated cross section and the rapidity distribution are computed employing sound high energy QCD formalisms like the collinear and semihard approaches as well as the saturation model. In particular, the color glass condensate (CGC) formalism is also considered using a simple phenomenological parameterization for the color field correlator in the medium, which allows us to obtain more reliable estimates for charm and bottom production at LHC energies.