Photoproduction of pentaquark states at the LHC

In this paper we investigate the production of pentaquark states in the photon - proton interactions present in hadronic collisions at the RHIC and LHC. We consider two phenomenological models for the J / Ψ photoproduction that consider the presence of the P_c (4312), P_c (4440) and P_c (4457) resonances in the s - channel of the γp → J / Ψp reaction. The rapidity distribution is estimated for pA collisions at the RHIC and LHC. Predictions for pPb, Pb Ar and Pb He fixed - target collisions at the LHC are also presented. We demonstrate that the experimental analysis of the J / Ψ photoproduction in fixed - target collisions can provide complementary and independent checks on these states, and help to understand their underlying nature.