IMPACT-PARAMETER DEPENDENCE OF MULTIPLE LEPTON-PAIR PRODUCTION FROM ELECTROMAGNETIC-FIELDS

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Güçlü M. C., WELLS J., UMAR A., STRAYER M., ERNST D.

PHYSICAL REVIEW A, vol.51, no.3, pp.1836-1844, 1995 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 51 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 1995
  • Doi Number: 10.1103/physreva.51.1836
  • Journal Name: PHYSICAL REVIEW A
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
  • Page Numbers: pp.1836-1844
  • Istanbul Technical University Affiliated: No

Abstract

In relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the strong Lorentz-contracted electromagnetic fields are capable of producing copious numbers of lepton pairs through the two-photon mechanism. Monte Carlo techniques have been developed that allow the exact calculation of production by this mechanism when a semi-classical approximation is made to the motion of the two ions. Here, we develop a hybrid Monte Carlo technique that enables us to calculate the impact parameter dependence of the two-photon mechanism for lepton-pair production, and by using this result, we obtain the probability distribution for multiple-pair production as a function of impact parameter. Computations are performed for S$+$Au and Pb$+$Pb systems at 200 A GeV and 160 A GeV, respectively. We also compare our results with the equivalent photon approximation and elucidate the differences.