Physics – High Energy Physics – High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Scientific paper
1998-10-20
Physics
High Energy Physics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
15 pages, to appear in "Proceedings of the Lund workshop on photon interactions and the photon structure, Lund, September 10-1
Scientific paper
In central collisions at relativistic heavy ion colliders like the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider RHIC/Brookhaven and the Large Hadron Collider LHC (in its heavy ion mode) at CERN/Geneva, one aims at detecting a new form of hadronic matter - the Quark Gluon Plasma. We discuss here a complementary aspect of these collisions, the very peripheral ones. Due to coherence, there are strong electromagnetic fields of short duration in such collisions. They give rise to photon-photon and photon-nucleus collisions with high flux up to an invariant mass region hitherto unexplored experimentally. After a general survey photon-photon luminosities in relativistic heavy ion collisions are discussed. Special care is taken to include the effects of strong interactions and nuclear size. Then photon-photon physics at various gamma-gamma-invariant mass scales is discussed. The region of several GeV, relevant for RHIC is dominated by QCD phenomena (meson and vector meson pair production). Invariant masses of up to about 100 GeV can be reached at LHC, and the potential for new physics is discussed. Photonuclear reactions and other important background effects, especially diffractive processes are also discussed. Lepton-pair production, especially electron-positron pair production is copious. Due to the strong fields there will be new phenomena, especially multiple e+e- pair production.
Baur Gerhard
Hencken Kai
Trautmann Dirk
No associations
LandOfFree
Two Photon Physics in pp and AA Collisions does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Two Photon Physics in pp and AA Collisions, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Two Photon Physics in pp and AA Collisions will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-373377