Perspectives of probing small-x dynamics in protons and nuclei in ultraperipheral AA and pA collisions at LHC

We summarize results of the recent study of ultraperipheral collisions (UPC) published in Physics Reports [A. Baltz et al., Phys. Rept. 458 (2008) 1 [arXiv:0706.3356 [nucl-ex]]]. The study demonstrates that investigations of photon-induced processes in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC will allow to probe small-x phenomena in the interactions with nucleons and nuclei in the energy range W⩽TeV allowing to extend the x range of HERA studies for the protons. As a result it will be possible to explore interactions in the black disk regime in a clean environment at significantly larger virtualities than those available at HERA.