Exclusive muon-pair productions in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions: Realistic nucleus charge form factor and differential distributions

TL;DR

This paper calculates exclusive muon pair production cross sections in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions using realistic nuclear charge form factors, revealing significant differences from simplified models and providing predictions for collider experiments.

Contribution

It introduces the use of realistic charge form factors for more accurate cross section calculations and compares them with traditional monopole models in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Realistic form factors yield smaller cross sections than monopole models.

Differences are more pronounced at high muon rapidities and transverse momenta.

Results are relevant for interpreting measurements at RHIC and LHC.

Abstract

The cross sections for exclusive muon pair production in nucleus - nucleus collisions are calculated and several differential distributions are shown. Realistic (Fourier transform of charge density) charge form factors of nuclei are used and the corresponding results are compared with the cross sections calculated with monopole form factor often used in the literature and discussed recently in the context of higher-order QED corrections. Absorption effects are discussed and quantified. The cross sections obtained with realistic form factors are significantly smaller than those obtained with the monopole form factor. The effect is bigger for large muon rapidities and/or large muon transverse momenta. The predictions for the STAR and PHENIX collaboration measurements at RHIC as well as the ALICE and CMS collaborations at LHC are presented.