Next-to-Leading Order Computation of Exclusive Diffractive Light Vector Meson Production in a Saturation Framework.

We perform the first next-to-leading order computation of the $\gamma^{(*)} \to V$ ($\rho, \phi, \omega$) impact factor in the QCD shockwave approach and in the most general kinematics. This paves the way to the very first quantitative study of high-energy nucleon and nucleus saturation beyond the leading order, in various processes to be measured in $ep$, $eA$, $pp$ and $pA$ collisions at existing and future colliders.