Coulomb disintegration of the 208Pb ions at the big hadron collider energy

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the spectrum of virtual photons in Pb-208 nuclei at high energy, calculating cross-sections for Coulomb-induced neutron evaporation and estimating neutron multiplicities using Glauber's method.

Contribution

It provides new estimates of neutron multiplicities and particle emissions resulting from Coulomb disintegration of Pb-208 nuclei at collider energies.

Findings

Neutron multiplicity reaches 30-40 per partner.

Average emission of 3-5 charged particles per partner.

Most particles have small rapidity and are detectable with ZDCs.

Abstract

The spectrum of virtual photons for nuclei of Pb-208 at big hadron collider energy is analysed. Cross-sections of inelastic Coulomb collisions accompanied with evaporation of one to four neutrons by one of the partners are calculated. By making use of the Glauber's method, executed estimates of neutron multiplicity resulting from the Coulomb desintehration of the nuclei. The predicted neutron multiplicity reaches 30-40 and more for each of the partners. Neutrons are accompanied by emitted fast protons and other charged particles, on the average three-five particles for each partner. The majority of the particles of a kulonovsky origin are characterized with small rapiditty and can thus be registered with ZDCs.