Higher-order processes in the electromagnetic production of electron-positron pairs in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Journal Article · Wed Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1995 · Physical Review A; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.51.998· OSTI ID:6600906

Hencken, K; Trautmann, D ^[1]; Baur, G ^[2]

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1. Institut fuer Theoretische Physik der Universitaet Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel (Switzerland)
2. Institut fuer Kernphysik (Theorie), Forschungszentrum Juelich, 52425 Juelich (Germany)

We study higher-order effects in the electromagnetic production of electron-positron pairs in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Treating the field of the heavy ions as an external field and neglecting the interaction among electrons and positrons, we show that the [ital N]-pair creation amplitude is the antisymmetrized product of [ital N] one-pair creation amplitudes and the vacuum amplitude. Neglecting contributions coming from exchange terms, we show that the total probability for [ital N] pairs is approximately a Poisson distribution. We investigate further the structure of the reduced one-pair amplitude, concentrating especially on multiple-particle corrections. We calculate the first of these corrections in second-order Magnus theory based on our previous result [Phys. Rev. A 49, 1584 (1994)] in the second-order Born approximation for impact parameter [ital b] zero. Explicit calculations show that the total probability is increased up to 10% by this correction for realistic collider parameters. The calculations can also be used to confirm the use of the Poisson distribution for the total probability.

• OSTI ID: 6600906
• Journal Information: Physical Review A; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review A; (United States) Vol. 51:2; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

664300* -- Atomic & Molecular Physics-- Collision Phenomena-- (1992-)
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
BASIC INTERACTIONS
BORN APPROXIMATION
CHARGED-PARTICLE REACTIONS
COLLISIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
INTERACTIONS
ION COLLISIONS
ION-ION COLLISIONS
LEPTONS
MATRICES
MATTER
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
PAIR PRODUCTION
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
POSITRONS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
S MATRIX