Coherent photon-hadron interactions in pA collisions: Small-x physics after HERA

In this letter we study the photoproduction of heavy quarks and vector mesons in the coherent proton-nucleus (pA) interactions for RHIC and LHC energies and analyze if these processes can be used to determine the QCD dynamics at high energies. The integrated cross section and rapidity distribution are estimated using the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) formalism. A comparison with the linear dynamics predictions is also presented. Our results indicate that the nonlinear dynamics can be proven in those reactions, which are well suited for studing saturation effects.