No Arabic abstract
In relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the strong Lorentz-contracted electromagnetic fields are capable of producing copious numbers of lepton pairs through the two-photon mechanism. Monte Carlo techniques have been developed that allow the exact calculation of production by this mechanism when a semi-classical approximation is made to the motion of the two ions. Here, we develop a hybrid Monte Carlo technique that enables us to calculate the impact parameter dependence of the two-photon mechanism for lepton-pair production, and by using this result, we obtain the probability distribution for multiple-pair production as a function of impact parameter. Computations are performed for S$+$Au and Pb$+$Pb systems at 200 A GeV and 160 A GeV, respectively. We also compare our results with the equivalent photon approximation and elucidate the differences.
The heavy ion probability for continuum e+ e- pair production has been calculated to all orders in Z alpha as a function of impact parameter. The formula resulting from an exact solution of the semiclassical Dirac equation in the ultrarelativistic limit is evaluated numerically. In a calculation of gamma = 100 colliding Au ions the probability of e+ e- pair production is reduced from the perturbation theory result throughout the impact parameter range.
We discuss the implications of the eikonal amplitude on the pair production probability in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion transits. In this context the Weizsacker-Williams method is shown to be exact in the ultrarelativistic limit, irrespective of the produced particles mass. A new equivalent single-photon distribution is derived which correctly accounts for the Coulomb distortions. As an immediate application, consequences for unitarity violation in photo-dissociation processes in peripheral heavy-ion encounters are discussed.
We study the role of impact parameter on the collective flow and its disappearance for different mass asymmetric reactions. The mass asymmetry is varied from 0 to 0.7 keeping the total mass of the system fixed. Our results clearly indicate a significant role of impact parameter on the collective flow and its disappearance for the mass asymmetric reactions. The impact parameter dependence is also found to vary with mass asymmetry of the reaction.
The STAR collaboration at RHIC is measuring the production of electron-positron pairs at small impact parameters, larger than but already close to the range, where the ions interact strongly with each other. We calculate the total cross section, as well as, differential distributions of the pair production process with the electromagnetic excitation of both ions in a semiclassical approach and within a lowest order QED calculation. We compare the distribution of electron and positron with the one coming from the cross section calculation without restriction on impact parameter. Finally we give an outlook of possible results at the LHC.
Pair production in a constant electric field is closely analogous to bubble nucleation in a false vacuum. The classical trajectories of the pairs are Lorentz invariant, but it appears that this invariance should be broken by the nucleation process. Here, we use a model detector, consisting of other particles interacting with the pairs, to investigate how pair production is seen by different Lorentzian observers. We focus on the idealized situation where a constant external electric field is present for an infinitely long time, and we consider the in-vacuum state for a charged scalar field that describes the nucleating pairs. The in-vacuum is defined in terms of modes which are positive frequency in the remote past. Even though the construction uses a particular reference frame and a gauge where the vector potential is time dependent, we show explicitly that the resulting quantum state is Lorentz invariant. We then introduce a detector particle which interacts with the nucleated pairs, and show that all Lorentzian observers will see the particles and antiparticles nucleating preferentially at rest in the detectors rest frame. Similar conclusions are expected to apply to bubble nucleation in a sufficiently long lived vacuum. We also comment on certain unphysical aspects of the Lorentz invariant in-vacuum, associated with the fact that it contains an infinite density of particles. This can be easily remedied by considering Lorentz breaking initial conditions.