Production of electron-positron pairs by nuclear dissociation in peripheral heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The STAR Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider present data on electron-positron pair production accompanied by nuclear breakup at small impact parameters where the simultaneous excitation of the two ions mainly the giant dipole resonance GDR can occur. We calculate the electron-positron pair production cross section relevant for the STAR experimental setup and compare our results with the other calculations. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.