In this letter we propose the search of dark photons in the decay of pions produced by $gamma gamma$ interactions in ultraperipheral $PbPb$ collisions. The cross section is estimated considering an accurate treatment for the absorptive corrections and for the nuclear form factor. Predictions for the event rates are presented considering the expected luminosities for the LHC, High -- Luminosity LHC and High -- Energy LHC as well as for the Future Circular Collider. Our results indicate that a future experimental analysis of the pion production in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions can be useful to probe the dark photon production and constrain its properties.
In this paper we investigate the production of a true muonium state, which is an atom consisting of a $mu^+ mu^-$ bound state, by $gamma gamma$ interactions in ultraperipheral $PbPb$ collisions considering an accurate treatment of the absorptive corrections and for the nuclear form factor. The rapidity distributions and cross sections are estimated considering the RHIC, LHC and FCC energies. Our results indicate that the experimental analysis can be useful to observe, for the first time, the true muonium state.
In this paper we perform a systematic study of the exclusive dilepton production by $gamma gamma$ interactions in $PbPb$ collisions at the LHC Run 2 energies considering different levels of precision for the treatment of the absorptive corrections and for the nuclear form factor. The rapidity and invariant mass distributions are estimated taking into account the experimental cutoffs and a comparison with the recent ALICE and ATLAS data for the $e^+ e^-$ and $mu^+ mu^-$ production is presented.
Searches are performed for both prompt-like and long-lived dark photons, $A^{prime}$, produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, using $A^{prime}tomu^+mu^-$ decays and a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.6 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the LHCb detector. The prompt-like $A^{prime}$ search covers the mass range from near the dimuon threshold up to 70 GeV, while the long-lived $A^{prime}$ search is restricted to the low-mass region $214<m(A^{prime})<350$ MeV. No evidence for a signal is found, and 90% confidence level exclusion limits are placed on the $gamma$-$A^{prime}$ kinetic-mixing strength. The constraints placed on prompt-like dark photons are the most stringent to date for the mass range $10.6 < m(A^{prime}) < 70$ GeV, and are comparable to the best existing limits for $m(A^{prime}) < 0.5$ GeV. The search for long-lived dark photons is the first to achieve sensitivity using a displaced-vertex signature.
We examine the spectrum of bremsstrahlung photons that results from the stopping of the initial net charge distributions in ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC. This effect has escaped detection so far since it becomes sizeable only at very low transverse momentum and at sufficiently forward rapidity. We argue that it may be within reach of the next-generation LHC heavy-ion detector ALICE-3 that is currently under study, and we comment on the physics motivation for measuring it.
Direct photons have been proposed as a promising signature for the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Recently WA98 presented the first data on direct photons in Pb+Pb-collisions at SPS. At the same time RHIC started with its experimental program. The discovery of the QGP in these experiments relies on a comparison of data with theoretical predictions for QGP signals. In the case of direct photons new results for the production rates of thermal photons from the QGP and a hot hadron gas as well as for prompt photons from initial hard parton scatterings have been proposed recently. Based on these rates a variety of different hydrodynamic models, describing the space-time evolution of the fireball, have been adopted for calculating the direct photon spectra. The results have been compared to the WA98 data and predictions for RHIC and LHC have been made. So far the conclusions of the various models are controversial. The aim of the present review is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date survey and status report on the experimental and theoretical aspects of direct photons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.