EMMI Workshop: Mining for gluon saturation at the LHC and the future EIC

Ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) at high energies provide an excellent laboratory to study photon-induced interactions and heavy flavor production in a clean experimental environment. In this work, the inclusive $D^0$ and $B^0$ photoproduction in ultraperipheral $pPb$ and $PbPb$ collisions at LHC energies is analyzed within the color dipole $S$-matrix formalism. Differential cross-sections are evaluated in transverse momentum space, and predictions for rapidity and transverse momentum spectra are obtained using different descriptions of the unintegrated gluon distribution, covering both linear and nonlinear QCD dynamics. The sensitivity of the results to the underlying gluon dynamics is discussed, and comparisons with recent CMS and ALICE preliminary data for $D^0$ photoproduction are presented. Our results indicate that a detailed analysis of these collisions can provide valuable insights into the strong interactions at high energies, as well as into nuclear effects in heavy ion collisions.