Measurement of an excess in the yield of J/$\psi$ at very low $p_{\rm T}$ in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV

Understand

We report on the first measurement of an excess in the yield of J/$\psi$ at very low transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}< 0.3$ GeV/$c$) in peripheral hadronic Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV, performed by ALICE at the CERN LHC.

• Remarkably, the measured nuclear modification factor of J/$\psi$ in the rapidity range $2.5<y<4$ reaches about 7 (2) in the $p_{\rm T}$ range 0-0.3 GeV/$c$ in the 70-90% (50-70%) centrality class.
• The J/$\psi$ production cross section associated with the observed excess is obtained under the hypothesis that coherent photoproduction of J/$\psi$ is the underlying physics mechanism.
• If confirmed, the observation of J/$\psi$ coherent photoproduction in Pb-Pb collisions at impact parameters smaller than twice the nuclear radius opens new theoretical and experimental challenges and opportunities.