Incoherent diffractive J/Ψ production in high-energy nuclear deep-inelastic scattering

We compute cross sections for incoherent diffractive J/Psi production in lepton-nucleus deep-inelastic scattering (DIS). The cross section is proportional to A in the dilute limit and to A(1/3) in the black disk limit, with a large nuclear suppression due to saturation effects. The t dependence of the cross section, if it can be measured accurately enough, is sensitive to the impact parameter profile of the gluons in the nucleus and their fluctuations, a quantity that determines the initial conditions of a relativistic heavy-ion collision. The nuclear suppression in incoherent diffraction shows how the transverse spatial distribution of the gluons in the nucleus gradually becomes smoother at high energy. Since the values of the momentum transfer vertical bar t vertical bar involved are relatively large, this process should be easier to measure in future nuclear DIS experiments than coherent diffraction.