Describing UPC Data with the Sartre Event Generator

Abstract

Ultra-peripheral heavy-ion collisions (UPCs) provide a distinct environment for high-energy QCD research, focusing on the production of vector mesons. This proceeding details recent advancements in the Sartre Monte Carlo event generator, a dipole model-based tool, to better describe UPC data. We present the incorporation of the full photon flux, accounting for interference effects and photon transverse momentum ( k_T ), and the integration of an n⁰₀n afterburner for neutron-tagged event classification. These extensions significantly improve Sartre's ability to reproduce experimental data from STAR and LHCb, particularly at small p_T² and for various neutron event classes.