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Probing the pion-gluon distribution at small x in photon-induced interactions at the LHC

Victor P. Gonçalves1,*, Juciene T. de Souza1,†, and Diego Spiering2,‡

  • *Contact author: barros@ufpel.edu.br
  • †Contact author: juciteixeiraprof@gmail.com
  • ‡Contact author: diego.spiering@gmail.com
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 054012 – Published 6 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/npyq-6ypc

Abstract

In this paper, we propose the analysis of the heavy quark photoproduction associated with a leading neutron in hadronic collisions at the LHC as an alternative to probe the pion gluon distribution in a kinematical range not covered by previous experiments. We perform an exploratory study of the charm and bottom photoproduction associated with a leading neutron in proton-proton (pp) and proton-lead (pPb) collisions, and present calculations for the rapidity distributions and cross sections. Our predictions indicate that experimental studies of these processes are feasible, and that a future measurement of this final state will be useful to constrain the pion gluon distribution at small values of the Bjorken x variable and to improve our understanding of the pion structure.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 054012– Published 6 March, 2026
  • Received 17 December 2025
  • Accepted 23 February 2026
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