Coherent photon-photon interactions in very peripheral relativistic heavy ion collisions

Heavy ions at high velocities provide very strong electromagnetic fields for a very short time. The main characteristics of ultraperipheral relativistic heavy ion collisions are reviewed, characteristic parameters are identified. The main interest in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions at relativistic ion colliders like the LHC is the interactions of very high energy (equivalent) photons with the countermoving (equivalent) photons and hadrons (protons/ions). The physics of these interactions is quite different from and complementary to the physics of the strong fields achieved with current and future lasers.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, invited talk presented at the ELI Workshop and School on Fundamental Physics with Ultra-high Fields (September 29- October 2, 2008, Frauenwoerth, German