Bound-Free Electron-Positron Pair Production in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

TL;DR

This paper calculates the cross sections for bound-free electron-positron pair production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, relevant for RHIC and LHC energies, using perturbation theory and Monte Carlo methods.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed cross section calculations for pair production with electron capture into the 1s state at collider energies.

Findings

Cross sections computed for Au+Au at 100 GeV/nucleon.

Cross sections computed for Pb+Pb at 3400 GeV/nucleon.

Methodology combines perturbation theory with Monte Carlo integration.

Abstract

The bound-free electron-positron pair production is considered for relativistic heavy ion collisions. In particular, cross sections are calculated for the pair production with the simultaneous capture of the electron into the 1s ground state of one of the ions and for energies that are relevant for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Colliders (LHC). In the framework of perturbation theory, we applied Monte-Carlo integration techniques to compute the lowest-order Feynman diagrams amplitudes by using Darwin wave functions for the bound states of the elec- trons and Sommerfeld-Maue wave functions for the continuum states of the positrons. Calculations were performed especially for the collision of Au + Au at 100 GeV/nucleon and Pb + Pb at 3400 GeV/nucleon.