Coherent J / ψ and ψ ′ photoproduction at midrapidity in ultra-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV

The coherent photoproduction of J/psi and psi' mesons was measured in ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector. Charmonia are detected in the central rapidity region for events where the hadronic interactions are strongly suppressed. The J/psi is reconstructed using the dilepton (l(+)l(-)) and proton-antiproton decay channels, while for the psi' the dilepton and the l(+)l(-) pi(+)pi(-) decay channels are studied. The analysis is based on an event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 233 mu b(-1). The results are compared with theoretical models for coherent J/psi and psi' photoproduction. The coherent cross section is found to be in a good agreement with models incorporating moderate nuclear gluon shadowing of about 0.64 at a Bjorken-x of around 6 x 10(-4), such as the EPS09 parametrization, however none of the models is able to fully describe the rapidity dependence of the coherent J/psi cross section including ALICE measurements at forward rapidity. The ratio of psi' to J/psi coherent photoproduction cross sections was also measured and found to be consistent with the one for photoproduction off protons.