Photoproduction of pentaquark states at the LHC

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the production of pentaquark states in the photon – proton interactions present in hadronic collisions at the RHIC and LHC. We consider two phenomenological models for the J/Ψ photoproduction that consider the presence of the Pc(4312), Pc(4440) and Pc(4457) resonances in the s – channel of the γp→J/Ψp reaction. The rapidity distribution is estimated for pA collisions at the RHIC and LHC. Predictions for pPb, PbAr and PbHe fixed – target collisions at the LHC are also presented. We demonstrate that the experimental analysis of the J/Ψ photoproduction in fixed – target collisions can provide complementary and independent checks on these states, and help to understand their underlying nature.