87 research outputs found
The electromagnetic interaction of ultrarelativistic heavy ions
The validity of a delta-function approximation for the electromagnetic
interaction of relativistic heavy ions is investigated. The production of e+e-
pairs, with electron capture, is used as a test of the approximation.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Coherent electromagnetic heavy ion reactions: (1) exact treatment of pair production and ionization; (2) mutual Coulomb dissociation
Some recent theoretical results on coherent electromagnetic processes in
ultrarelativistic heavy ion reactions are surveyed.Comment: 4 pages, latex source, no figures, to appear in Proceedings of Quark
Matter '9
Exact scaling of pair production in the high-energy limit of heavy-ion collisions
The two-center Dirac equation for an electron in the external electromagnetic
field of two colliding heavy ions in the limit in which the ions are moving at
the speed of light is exactly solved and nonperturbative amplitudes for free
electron-positron pair production are obtained. We find the condition for the
applicability of this solution for large but finite collision energy, and use
it to explain recent experimental results. The observed scaling of positron
yields as the square of the projectile and target charges is a result of an
exact cancellation of a nonperturbative charge dependence and holds as well for
large coupling. Other observables would be sensitive to nonperturbative phases.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, no figures, submitted to PR
Asymptotic channels and gauge transformations of the time-dependent Dirac equation for extremely relativistic heavy-ion collisions
We discuss the two-center, time-dependent Dirac equation describing the
dynamics of an electron during a peripheral, relativistic heavy-ion collision
at extreme energies. We derive a factored form, which is exact in the
high-energy limit, for the asymptotic channel solutions of the Dirac equation,
and elucidate their close connection with gauge transformations which transform
the dynamics into a representation in which the interaction between the
electron and a distant ion is of short range. We describe the implications of
this relationship for solving the time-dependent Dirac equation for extremely
relativistic collisions.Comment: 12 pages, RevTeX, 2 figures, submitted to PR
Bound-free pair production in ultra-relativistic ion collisions at the LHC collider: Analytic approach to the total and differential cross sections
A theoretical investigation of the bound-free electron-positron pair
production in relativistic heavy ion collisions is presented. Special attention
is paid to the positrons emitted under large angles with respect to the beam
direction. The measurement of these positrons in coincidence with the
down--charged ions is in principle feasible by LHC experiments. In order to
provide reliable estimates for such measurements, we employ the equivalent
photon approximation together with the Sauter approach and derive simple
analytic expressions for the differential pair--production cross section, which
compare favorably to the results of available numerical calculations. Based on
the analytic expressions, detailed calculations are performed for collisions of
bare Pb ions, taking typical experimental conditions of the LHC
experiments into account. We find that the expected count rate strongly depends
on the experimental parameters and may be significantly enhanced by increasing
the positron-detector acceptance cone.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
The sign of the day-night asymmetry for solar neutrinos
A qualitative understanding of the day-night asymmetry for solar neutrinos is
provided. The greater night flux in nu_e is seen to be a consequence of the
fact that the matter effect in the sun and that in the earth have the same
sign. It is shown in the adiabatic approximation for the sun that for all
values of the mixing angle theta_V between 0 and pi/2, the night flux of
neutrinos is greater than the day flux. Only for small values of theta_V where
the adiabatic approximation badly fails does the sign of the day-night
asymmetry reverse.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, typos corrected and references adde
Coulomb corrections to production in ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions
The purpose of this paper is to explain the discrepancies existing in the
literature relative to pair production in peripheral heavy ion
collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. A controversial issue is the
possible cancellation of Coulomb corrections to the Born term in the pair
production cross-section. Such a cancellation has been observed in a recent
approach based on finding retarded solutions of the Dirac equation, but does
not seem to hold in a perturbative approach. We show in this paper that the two
approaches are in fact calculating different observables: the perturbative
approach gives the exclusive cross-section of single pair production, while the
other method gives the inclusive cross-section.
We have also performed a thorough study of the electron propagator in the
non-static background field of the two nuclei, the conclusion of which is that
the retarded propagator is in the ultra-relativistic limit a much simpler
object than the Feynman propagator, and can be calculated exactly.Comment: 31 pages LaTeX document, 10 postscript figures (expanded 3rd section,
version to be published in Nucl. Phys. A
Multipole Expansion for Relativistic Coulomb Excitation
We derive a general expression for the multipole expansion of the
electro-magnetic interaction in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, which can be
employed in higher-order dynamical calculations of Coulomb excitation. The
interaction has diagonal as well as off-diagonal multipole components,
associated with the intrinsic and relative coordinates of projectile and
target. A simple truncation in the off-diagonal components gives excellent
results in first-order perturbation theory for distant collisions and for beam
energies up to 200 MeV/nucleon.Comment: 3 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Coulomb corrections and multiple e+e- pair production in ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions
We consider the problem of Coulomb corrections to the inclusive cross
section. We show that these corrections in the limiting case of small charge
number of one of the nuclei coincide with those to the exclusive cross section.
Within our approach we also obtain the Coulomb corrections for the case of
large charge numbers of both nuclei.Comment: 7 pages, REVTeX
Revisiting unitarity corrections for electromagnetic processes in collisions of relativistic nuclei
Unitarity corrections to several electromagnetic processes in collisions of
relativistic heavy nuclei are considered. They are due to the unitarity
requirement for the S-matrix and correspond to the exchange of light-by-light
scattering block between colliding nuclei. We obtain improved results for the
corrections to e+e- and mu+mu- pair production, as well as new results for
unitarity corrections to the production of photons via virtual Compton and
virtual Delbruck scattering. These corrections can be numerically large; e.g.,
the mu+mu- pair production cross section is reduced by about 50% and the
nuclear bremsstrahlung by about 15 to 20%.Comment: 9 pages; LaTe
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