Photoproduction of light vector mesons in Xe–Xe ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC and the nuclear density of Xe-129

Abstract

We make predictions for cross sections of ρ and φ vector meson photoproduction in ultraperipheral Xe–Xe collisions at √sN N = 5.44 TeV. Analyzing the momentum transfer distribution of ρ mesons in this process, we explore the feasibility of extracting the nuclear density of 129Xe, which is needed in searches for dark matter with Xenon-based detectors.