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$η_c$ production in photon - induced interactions at the AFTER@LHC experiment as a probe of the Odderon

One of the open questions of the strong interaction theory is the existence of the Odderon, which is an unambiguous prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics, but still not confirmed experimentally. An alternative to probe the Odderon is the exclusive $η_c$ photoproduction in hadronic collisions. As the Pomeron exchange cannot contribute to this process, its observation would indicate the existence of the Odderon. In this paper we estimate the $η_c$ production in photon - induced interactions in hadronic collisions at the AFTER@LHC experiment. We demonstrate that the experimental analysis of this process is feasible in the AFTER@LHC experiment and that the observation of the $η_c$ production in nuclear collisions is a unambiguous signature of the Odderon.