
ALICE Detects Gluon Saturation Clues Inside Nuclei
CERN’s ALICE experiment used incoherent J/ψ photonuclear production to probe local gluon density fluctuations inside lead nuclei, scanning with momentum transfer to resolutions from 0.6 to 0.2 femtometers. The data show a suppression of J/ψ production at the smallest scales with about 3-sigma significance, challenging traditional nuclear shadowing and aligning with the gluon-saturation picture predicted by quantum chromodynamics, revealing densely packed gluon states inside nuclei.








