Bound-free electron-positron pair production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

2000/08/15 by Helmar Meier, H. W. Meier, Zlatko Halabuka +6 · 43 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Born approximation #Bound state #Collider #Electron #Hadron #Heavy ion #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Ion #Large Hadron Collider #Nuclear physics #Pair production #Particle accelerators and beam dynamics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Positron #Quantum mechanics #Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider #Upper and lower bounds #Wave function #nucl-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.63.032713

published in Physical Review A 63(3) (American Physical Society) · 15 pages, 1 figure, improved discussion, one table added

arxiv created 2000/08/15 · openalex publication_date 2001/02/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We study the bound-free electron-positron pair production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions to different bound states in a full plane-wave Born approximation calculation. Exact Dirac wave functions are used for both the bound electron and the free positron in the final states. Results for the relativistic heavy-ion collider as well as the forthcoming large hadron collider are given. This process is one of the dominant beam loss processes and can become critical for the operation with heavy ions. A simple parametrization is given as well. We compare our results with calculations of other groups.

Cited by

• Time evolution of the luminosity of colliding heavy-ion beams in BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and CERN Large Hadron Collider
• Bound-free pair production cross-section in heavy-ion colliders from the equivalent photon approach