Coherent photons and pomerons in heavy ion collisions

Journal Article · Tue May 20 00:00:00 EDT 1997 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.54320· OSTI ID:21175375

Klein, Spencer ^[1]; Scannapieco, Evan ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720 (United States)

Ultrarelativistic heavy ion beams carry large electromagnetic and strong absorptive fields, allowing exploration of a variety of physics. {gamma}{gamma}, {gamma}P, and PP interactions can probe a huge variety of couplings and final states. RHIC will be the first heavy ion accelerator energetic enough to produce hadronic final states via coherent couplings. Virtual photons from the nuclear EM fields can interact in {gamma}{gamma} interactions, which can be exploited to study many particle spectroscopy and QCD topics. Because the photon flux scales as Z{sup 2}, {gamma}{gamma} luminosities are large up to an energy of about {gamma}({Dirac_h}/2{pi})c/R{approx_equal}3 GeV/c. Photon-Pomeron interactions are sensitive to how different vector mesons, including the J/{psi}, interact with nuclear matter. PP collisions rates are sensitive to the range of the Pomeron. Signals can be separated from backgrounds by using cuts on final state isolation (rapidity gaps) and p{sub perpendicular}. We present Monte Carlo studies of different backgrounds, showing that representative signals can be extracted with good rates and signal to noise ratios.

• OSTI ID: 21175375
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 412, Issue 1; Conference: 6. conference on the intersections of particle and nuclear physcis, Big Sky, MT (United States), 25 May - 2 Jun 1997; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.54320; (c) 1997 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BROOKHAVEN RHIC
COHERENT PRODUCTION
FINAL-STATE INTERACTIONS
GEV RANGE
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
J PSI-3097 MESONS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
NUCLEAR MATTER
PARTICLE RAPIDITY
PHOTON-PHOTON INTERACTIONS
PHOTONS
POMERANCHUK PARTICLES
PROTON-PROTON INTERACTIONS
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO