Chapter 10 - Electron-Positron Pair Production

Chapt e r 10
E l e c t r o n - P o s i t r o n P a i r
P r o d u c t i o n
1 0 . 1 I n t r o d u c t i o n
The production of electron-positron pairs in collisions of charged cosmic
ray particles with nuclei has been a subject of theoretical interest soon af-
ter the discovery of the positron in the early 1930s [LaL34, Bha35, Rac37,
NIT35]. These calculations were mainly based on the equivalent-photon or
Weizs/icker-Williams met hod [Wei34, Wi134, Wi135], which describes pair
production as the decay into an e +e- pair of one of the virtual photons
composing the transient electromagnetic field of the projectile in the pres-
ence of the static Coulomb field of the nucleus (Bethe-Heitler process). A
simple estimate [LaL34] (see also [Hei54]) for the total pair production cross
section at large values of the Lorentz factor ~ is given by
28 (O~ZT)2(c~Zp)2 ~ ln-~ (10.1)
o-~+ ~ 27--~
where ~ is the electron Compt on wavelength and c~ is the fine-structure
constant. The cross section increases with ~ and becomes large for high-Z
collision partners.
At the present time, there is no need to rely entirely on cosmic rays for
investigating pair production. In addition to the accelerators for relativistic
heavy ions already in operation, there is the promise for the near future of
the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven and the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN t hat will allow the st udy of heavy-ion
reactions up to 20 and 3.5 TeV/u, respectively, of equivalent laboratory
281
282 CHAPTER 10. ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAIR PRODUCTI ON
m c 2
I S I I 2
0
2
- m c
a } I b }
Fi gur e 10.1. Schematic representation of (a) bound-electron-free-positron pair
production and (b) free pair production.
energy.
For a given collider Lorentz factor %o11, t he equivalent projectile Lorentz
factor ~FT for a fixed t arget is given according to Eq. (2.30) by
7FT = 2~c2oll- 1. (10.2)
In this way, ext reme relativistic collision energies can be reached for which
pair product i on is one of t he domi nat i ng processes. When considering pair
product i on we usually have in mi nd very large values of 7.
Wi t h t he advent of accelerators for relativistic heavy ions, t he interest
in t hi s process has been revived [Sof80, NIP82]. The process of produci ng
a single el ect ron-posi t ron pair is best visualized by referring to Fig. 4.2 for
t he free Dirac equation. If t he Coulomb field of t he nucleus is included, t he
Dirac equat i on also support s bound states. Consequently, we can distin-
guish pair product i on in which t he electron is creat ed in a bound st at e and
pair product i on in which t he electron is creat ed in a cont i nuum state. This
is i l l ust rat ed in Fig. 10.1. We denot e these two reaction channels as "bound-
el ect ron-free-posi t ron pair product i on" (or "bound-free pair product i on")
and "free pair product i on, " respectively. 1
In Sec. 10.2, we discuss t he product i on of free electron-positron pairs,
in Sec. 10.3 of bound-el ect ron-free posi t ron pairs and t ur n to mul t i pl e pair
product i on in Sec. 10.4. We do not discuss t he creation of heavier leptons (p
1We avoid the notation "pair production with (or followed by) capture" which is
sometimes found in the literature because it would suggest a two-step process thus dis-
regarding the complete analogy of the processes (a) and (b) in Fig. 10.1.
10.2. PRODUCTION OF FREE ELECTRON-POSITRON PAIRS 283
and 7- pairs), let alone exotic particles, like magnetic monopoles, W-pairs,
b-quarks, and the Higgs particle, see, e.g., [GrV93]. Already for muons, the
length scale connected with their mass is strongly cont ract ed compared to
the electronic length scale. This will render it difficult to clearly separat e
electromagnetic pair product i on from hadronic processes, which are beyond
the scope of this book.
Following conventional usage, we adopt relativistic ("nat ural ") units in
this chapt er with h = c = rne = 1, (see Appendix). However, where clarity
demands it, the electron mass me, the velocity of light c, or the Compt on
wavelength ~ are displayed explicitly. Similarly, we usually keep/ 3 = v/c
instead of replacing it by v. Electron and posi t ron quantities are labelled
by "e" and "p", e.g., as in Ee and Ep. Only if for free electrons or positrons
the moment a serve as quant um numbers, we refer to positive and negative
energy states (corresponding to electrons and positrons, respectively) by
the labels p+ and p_, e.g., for the energies, as Ep+ and Ep_.
10. 2 P r o d u c t i o n of free
pai rs
e l e c t r o n- po s i t r o n
Figure 10.1 illustrates two compet i ng processes for single-pair product i on
in heavy-ion collisions. Conceptually, these processes are very similar; how-
ever, there are two distinctions which suggest a separat e t reat ment . (1) In
cont rast to a free electron, an electron created in a bound st at e has to ac-
commodat e its moment um within the available moment um di st ri but i on of
the t arget (if it is bound in the t arget ) or of the projectile (if it is bound
in the projectile). This entails the typical charge number dependence Z5T
known from electron capture, see Chap. 8, and also an energy dependence
different from t hat for the product i on of free electrons. (2) Since an electron
bound in a specific st at e has no further degrees of freedom, bound-el ect ron-
free-positron pair product i on is more accessible to calculations.
The creation of free electron-positron pairs is by far the domi nant pair
product i on process for extreme relativistic energies. It had been observed
already in the 1930s, while bound-free pair product i on has been detected
only recently [BEG93, BEG94]. Bot h processes occur with a relatively small
probabi l i t y so t hat it is a reasonable first step to employ per t ur bat i on the-
ory. In this section, we confine ourselves to free pair product i on, deferring
bound-free pair product i on to See. 10.3. We st art with pert urbat i ve cal-
culations, first in lowest-order quant um electrodynamics (QED), in which
electrons and positrons are represented by plane waves, and t hen in a first-
order distorted-wave approxi mat i on. In See. 10.2.3, we discuss the applica-
284 CHAPTER 10. ELECTRON-POSITRON PAIR PRODUCTION
tion of the equi val ent -phot on or Weizss met hod for ext remel y
high projectile energies.
10. 2. 1 Lowes t - order QED c al c ul at i ons
The t heoret i cal l y most clear-cut way to describe t he product i on of free
el ect ron-posi t ron pairs is a formulation in t erms of lowest-order QED wi t h
ext ernal el ect romagnet i c fields. In t he center-of-mass system, t he t arget and
projectile nuclei merely serve as sources of t i me-dependent el ect romagnet i c
fields. Since ener gy- moment um conservation rules out pair creat i on by a
single freely moving charge, t he lowest-order QED process involves two
moving nuclei, each of t hem i nt eract i ng wi t h t he electron-positron field via
t he exchange of a single photon. A represent at i on in t erms of Feynman
di agrams is given in Fig. 10.2 to be discussed below.
The lowest-order nonvanishing t er m in t he expansion (5.66) of t he S-
operat or is therefore of second order and reads
F f 1
~(2) _ (_i)2 dtl dr2 Hi ( t 1) Hi ( t 2) , (10.3)
where for an ext ernal el ect romagnet i c field (5.68)
H(t) = / ~( r , t ) V( t ) ~( r , t ) d3r (10.4)
wi t h
V(t) = -e~~ = -e((I) - c~. A). (10.5)
Here, for brevity, we display in t he pot ent i al V(t) = V(r, t) only t he t i me
dependence explicitly. Wi t hi n QED, t he space-t i me-dependent field opera-
tors r are expanded in t erms of plane waves according to Eq. (5.8).
Alternatively, we could choose t arget or projectile eigenstates (5.53)
or (5.54) i nst ead of plane waves. In the language of QED, such st at es
are produced by exchanging infinitely many phot ons between t he electron
(or t he positron) and t he t arget or projectile nucleus. Since these st at es
do not possess a definite moment um, energy-moment um conservation does
not impose a constraint, so t hat a first-order di st ort ed wave process as
described in Eq. (5.72) and implied by Fig. 10.1 is possible. We defer a
discussion to Sec. 10.2.2.
In t erms of t he creation and annihilation operat ors i nt roduced in
Sec. 4.2.2, t he S mat r i x element describing t he creation from t he vacuum of
a single free pair wi t h electron moment um and energy p+, Ep+ and posi t ron
10.2. PRODUCTION OF FREE ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAIRS 285
b
c d
Fi gur e 10. 2. Lowest-order Feynman diagrams for the production of a free
electron-positron pair in a collision between two heavy ions. The time arrow
points upwards. The heavy vertical lines denote the nuclei 1 and 2, while pho-
tons are depicted as wavy lines and electrons and positrons are described by thin
solid lines with arrows directed upwards and downwards, respectively.
mome nt um and energy p_, Ep_, respectively, is obt ai ned from Eq. (10.3)
in t he form
= ( _i ) 2 dt l dt2
O(3 ( X)
/~)tg (t2)~)d37 " 2 10> . (10. 6)
Here, as a first st ep in t he process, a pai r is cr eat ed at t he earlier t i me t2 by
t he i nt eract i on V(t2), medi at ed by a phot on emi t t ed ei t her from t he t ar get
or from t he projectile. Bot h al t ernat i ves cont r i but e to t he mat r i x element.
In order to decompose t he vacuum expect at i on value in Eq. (10.6) into a
first and a second react i on step, we i nsert a compl et e set
E ~k-b~k+ I0) (O'bk+dk_ -- 1 (10.7)
k+k_
of pl ane-wave el ect ron-posi t ron st at es (wi t h moment a and energies k+, Ek+
and k_, Ek _) between t he two space integrals. The mat r i x element (10.6)
h
is now reformul at ed by i nt roduci ng t he expansion (5.8) of r in t erms of
a complete set of single-particle states. From ~t ~, we obt ai n four t ypes
of operat or product s, namel y ~t~, d ~, ~t d ~, and bd, corresponding to
electron scattering, posi t ron scattering, pair product i on, and pair annihi-
lation, respectively. In t he mat r i x element at t he earlier t i me t2, only t he
pair product i on t erm contributes, while in t he mat r i x element at t he later
t i me t l, only t he electron or posi t ron scat t eri ng t erms yield a nonzero re-
sult. In a first step, t he mat r i x element at t2 can be wri t t en explicitly
if, according to Eq. (4.39), we write t he wave function in t he usual form
~k+ (r, t) = ~k ( r ) exp (--iEk + t). Then
= (-i ) Z
k+ k _ cc
X <Olb~p+dp_ / ~ * V( t l ) ~ d 3 r l ~k _b tk + 10>
x ( wk + Iv ( t2) I~ k _ > e-* ( E~ - -E ~+)t~, ( 10.8 )
where t he last bracket no longer involves field operat ors and simply denotes
a space i nt egral . In t he single-particle mat r i x element at t i me t l , only one
st at e can change so t hat we have two nonvanishing contributions: t he first
one wi t h k_ = p_ describing t he scat t eri ng of t he electron k+ --, p+ and t he
second one wi t h k+ = p+ describing t he scat t eri ng of t he positron k_ --, p_.
These possibilities are i l l ust rat ed in t he Feynman di agrams of Fig. 10.2.
Di agrams (a) and (b) show t he creation of a pair by nucleus 1 and t he
subsequent scat t eri ng of t he electron and positron, respectively, by nucleus
2. In t he "crossed" di agrams (c) and (d), t he role of t he two colliding nuclei
is interchanged. All four di agrams cont ri but e to t he t ransi t i on ampl i t ude.
In order to distinguish t he four diagrams, let us i nt roduce t he following
not at i on. The label s = q- denotes positive- or negative-energy i nt ermedi at e
scat t eri ng states, while t he label n = 1 or n = 2 denotes t he nuclear
pot ent i al t hat creates t he electron-positron pair. Then t he di agrams (a),
(b), (c), and (d) are assigned to t he combinations (+, 1), (-,1), (+, 2), and
(-,2). The S mat r i x element correspondi ng to t he di agram (a), in which
t he pair is creat ed by nucleus 1 and t he i nt ermedi at e scat t eri ng st at e is an
electron state, is wri t t en as
/ ? /___tlcK ) ~(+,l)p+p_ __ (_i)2 E dt i dt2(~p+lV2(ti)l~k +> e -i (s k +-Ep+)t l
k+ oo
X < (ilk+ Igl (t2)I~p_ > e-i ( Ep- -Ek + )t2. (10.9)
10.2. PRODUCTI ON OF FREE ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAI RS 287
For t he di agr am (c), t he pot ent i al s V1 and V2 are i nt erchanged.
It is now conveni ent to express t he t i me- dependent pot ent i al s V( t ) by
t hei r Fouri er t r ansf or ms V(w), t hus performi ng a frequency analysis, in
anal ogy to Eq. (3.41). Then t he t i me dependence resides ent i rel y in t he re-
sul t i ng exponent i al factors. Wi t h t he aid of a convergence-enforci ng damp-
ing factor, t he t i me i nt egr at i on can be performed as in or di nar y per t ur ba-
t i on theory, see, e.g., [Sch61], wi t h t he resul t
i ?i ?
S (+,~)p+p_ = - i ~ d~ d~' < ~p+lV2(~)l~k +> < ~k +lVl(~' )l~p_>
k+ ~
+ Ep Ep+)
x - (10.10)
w ~ +Ep _ - Ek ++i r l '
where t he l i mi t r/ + +0 has to be t aken. Aft er i nt egr at i ng over w' , t hi s
form can be r ewr i t t en as
/ 2 d <Pp+lV2(w + Ep+)l~k +)< Pk + l V l ( - Ep - w)lq@_}
S (+'1) = i Z w - .
P+P- Ek+ + w - it/
k+
(10.11)
In compl et e anal ogy , t he cont r i but i ons from t he r emai ni ng Feynman did-
gr ams in Fig. 10.2 can be cal cul at ed.
Bot t cher and St rayer [BOS89] derived t he S mat r i x in a different way,
t aki ng advant age of t he par t i cul ar symmet r i c si t uat i on in a collider exper-
i ment . In t hi s case, Zp = ZT = Z, and it is conveni ent t o use t he center-
of-mass frame in whi ch t he two nuclei 1 and 2 have t he i mpact par amet er s
+b / 2 and velocities +v. Because of symmet r y, t he mat r i x el ement s are
si mpl er and t he cont r i but i ons wi t h s = + denot i ng positive- and negat i ve-
energy scat t er i ng st at es can be combi ned. The S mat r i x is a sum of all four
r
t er ms ~p+p_. The "di rect " di agr ams (a) and (b) yield t he mat r i x el ement s
- _
(s,1)
Sp+p_ - i ~ - ~ d (~p+lV2(w Ep+)l ~k ~)< ~k ~l Yl (Ep a~)l~p_>
ks ~ Ek s -- w -- irl '
(10.12)
and, by i nt er changi ng V1 and 1/2, one obt ai ns t he correspondi ng expressions
S (~,2) for t he di agr ams (c) and (d). The space mat r i x el ement s occurri ng
in Eq. (10.12) are eval uat ed using t he frequency r epr esent at i on V( w) of t he
pot ent i al s derived in anal ogy to Eq. (5.106), wi t h q0 = a; /v, so t hat
f d eiqb 'rb
_ Ze2 2
V1,2(w) - 7 r vx / ~ qb q2 ~ + (1 -- ~2) ~2/ v2 e+~q~'b/2(1 T Zaz) , (10.13)
where we used the decomposition r = (rb, z) into a transverse and a longitu-
dinal part (parallel to v) and, similarly, q = (qb, o z/v). When inserting the
plane-wave states ( 4. 62) and (4.63) (whose time dependence has already
been t aken into account) into Eq. (10.12), the spatial integrations yield
del t a functions in the moment a for each of the mat ri x elements. While
the transverse part s simply eliminate the qb integrations, the longitudinal
part s fix t he frequency w and the longitudinal moment um k z of the inter-
medi at e states. As a result, for given moment a p+, p_ of the final electron-
posi t ron states, the S- mat r i x elements (10.12) contain only a summat i on
(or a two-dimensional integration) over the transverse moment a kb, of the
i nt ermedi at e states. In order to obt ai n the t ot al cross section, the squares
of t he sums over all cont ri but i ons have to be integrated over all electron and
posi t ron moment a. It has been shown and confirmed by numerical integra-
tion t hat the sum of all contributions in Fig. 10.2 is gauge invariant. The
results for the t ot al cross sections obt ai ned by the Monte-Carlo technique
of i nt egrat i on are discussed in Sec. 10.2.2 and are included in Fig. 10.8.
1 0 . 2 . 2 Fi r s t - o r d e r d i s t o r t e d - wa v e theory
As illustrated in Fig. 10.1 (b), the pair product i on process can be viewed as
t he ionization of a negative-energy electron by the projectile, a process t hat
can occur even in collisions between bare nuclei. In contrast to Sec. 10.2.1,
here we adopt Coulombic t arget wave functions for the electron and posi t ron
states and consider the projectile-electron interaction as a pert urbat i on.
This means t hat t he projectile-electron interaction is taken into account in
first order, while the t arget -el ect ron interaction is included to all orders of
aZ. In the description of the cont i nuum states, we have two options. We
may either use a partial-wave expansion of the exact Dirac wave function,
similarly as for ionization in Sec. 6.3, or we may employ a Sommerfeld-Maue
wave function which is approxi mat e, but can be given in a closed form, see
Sec. 4.4.3.
Partial-wave expans io n o f the co ntinuum wave f unct i o ns
Becker et al. [BeG86a] use the analogy to the ionization process, see
Sec. 6.3.2, to write the double-differential product i on probability in the
form
d2p(b ) _
- E lAp+p_ (b )l 2, (10.14)
dEp+ dEp_
t~p+ ,~p+ ~t~p_ ~p_
where Ep+ and Ep_ are the electron and posi t ron energies, and the sum-
mat i on extends over the corresponding Dirac quant um numbers n and the
10.2. PRODUCTI ON OF FREE ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAIRS 289
angul ar moment um projections p. The t ransi t i on ampl i t ude (5.96) is (in
nat ur al units)
Ap+p_ - i',/Zpe 2 f
dt ei(Ep+ +Ep_)t I~p+
1
(1 - ~C~z) D--
r p
~p_ } . (10.15)
Here, t he brackets denote a spatial integration. Similarly, as in Eq. (5.105),
one may i nt roduce
qo = Ep+ + Ep_ (10.16)
V
to obtain, by multipole decomposition in moment um space (cf. Sec. 6.3.2),
an equat i on for t he t ransi t i on ampl i t ude t hat is formally identical to Eq.
(6.44) and need not be repeat ed here. By i nt egrat i ng Eq. (10.15) over t he
i mpact par amet er plane, one derives the double-differential cross section
for pair creat i on (in units of )~) in the form
(Z pe2;
_ v (q2 _ 32q2)2 IMp+p_ (q)12,
/'i;p+ ~/./,p+ ~N;p_ ~p _ 0
(10.17)
where t he mat r i x element Mp+p_ is given by Eq. (6.47) wi t h t he labels
f, i replaced by p+, p_. If one is interested in angul ar correlations, one
has to use wave functions (4.123) or (4.124) wi t h well-defined asympt ot i c
moment a, which implies a coherent summat i on over part i al waves.
Compared to t he case of ionization [VaB84], t he evaluation of t he mat r i x
elements Mp+p_ occurring in Eq. (10.17) is compl i cat ed by t he presence
of two cont i nuum Coul omb-Di rac wave functions. In act ual calculations,
t he summat i on over t he part i al waves has to be t r uncat ed at a maxi mum
value of t he Dirac quant um number [gmaxl for t he electron and positron.
Thi s implies t hat at very large projectile energies, t he met hod of part i al
wave expansion is bound to fail because too large values of I~maxl would be
required for a proper description of the resulting high-energy electron and
posi t ron wave functions.
Similarly, as in See. 6.1.2, it should be st at ed here t hat t he Coulomb
boundar y condition expressed by Eq. (6.8) are aut omat i cal l y t aken into
account in (10.15). If one introduces t he exact solutions of t he asympt ot i c
Dirac equation, one obt ai ns a relation in analogy to Eq. (6.9) containing an
addi t i onal t er m wi t h 1/ R' . Again, wi t hi n first-order per t ur bat i on theory,
t he cont ri but i on of this t er m drops out after t i me i nt egrat i on [TOE91].
Becker et al. [BeG86a] show t hat in the ext reme relativistic limit 7 ~ oc
t he double-differential probabi l i t y d2P(b )/(dEp+ dEp_ ) approaches a con-
st ant value and t hat t he double-differential cross section d2o /(dEp+ dEp_ )
x 1 0- ' 1
. ~o
>
1.o
0.1
1 2 ~ 6 8 1 0 1 2 1 4.
Ep ( m r z )
Fi gur e 10.3. Single,differential probability for the creation of free electron-
positron pairs in p + U 92+ collisions as a function of the positron energy Ep = Ep_
at an impact parameter b = 100 fm for various projectile energies El~b = 1, 10,
and 100 GeV/u. From [BeG86a].
increases as In 7- This behavior is caused solely by the space-time depen-
dence of the projectile field and not by the part i cul ar choice of the wave
functions.
Figure 10.3 shows the single-differential probabilities for pair creation
as a function of the posi t ron energy. The steep decrease of the probabilities
for small positron energies is caused by the repulsion between positron and
t arget nucleus at the given impact paramet er b. The decrease at large Ep_ is
caused by the unavailability of hi gh-moment um component s in the virtual-
phot on spect rum. As a result, the probabilities peak at Ep_ ~ ( 2 - 3)mec 2.
Total cross sections for free pair product i on are shown in Fig. 10.8 and
are compared there with those derived wi t h the QED met hod of See. 10.2.1
and wi t h Sommerfeld-Maue wave functions discussed below.
So mmerfeld-Maue wave functio ns f o r electrons and po s itro ns
Since exact Dirac cont i nuum wave functions for a Coulomb pot ent i al can
be represented only by partial-wave expansions, it is meaningful to intro-
duce approxi mat e Sommerfeld-Maue or Furry wave functions, see Sec. 4.4.3.
Thei r advant age is twofold: the wave functions can be given in a closed ana-
10.2. PRODUCTION OF FREE ELECTRON-POSITRON PAIRS 291
lytical form and, furthermore, are characterized by well-defined asymptotic
momenta. According to Bethe and Maximon [BeM54], who first applied
t hem to the production of electron-positron pairs by real photons in the
field of a nucleus, these wave functions are very good approximations to
the exact continuum states for electron energies large compared to the rest
energy mec 2.
The sixfold differential probability for emitting an electron-positron pair
with moment a p +, p _ and (undetected) spin projections s +, s _, respec-
tively, is given by [Dec91, IOE93]
d6p( b) p+p_Ep+ Ep_
= Z IAp+p - (b)12' (10.18)
dEp+ dEp_dt2p+ df~p_ (27r) 6
8A_~s _
where, in analogy to Eqs. (6.4) and (6.6) or directly from Eq. (10.15),
_ [
Ap+p_ ( b )
~v J qb 2 + (%/,7) 2 e-iqb ' b Mp+p_(qb , qo) (10.19)
with
Mp+p_(qb , qo ) = (qpp+ [(1 -- flaz)eiq' rlczp_ ). (10.20)
The longitudinal moment um transfer q0 resulting from the time integration
is again given by Eq. (10.16).
Before evaluating the expression (10.20) with Sommerfeld-Maue wave
functions, it is necessary to adopt the reformulation of the mat ri x element
according to Eq. (5.109) in order to avoid spurious contributions, index-
Matrix elements!of the alpha@of the a-operat or
The calculations [IOE93] show t hat even for high collision energies, the
t erm proportional, to 1/V 2 in Eq. (5.109) cannot be neglected compared
to the other terms. However, when the electron wave function (4.132)
with incoming spherical waves and the positron wave function (4.133) with
outgoing spherical waves is inserted into Eq. (10.20), we ignore the cross
term, in which the derivatives of the 1F1 function is taken bot h for the
electron and for the positron. This t erm is of higher order in Za, t hat is,
of the same order as terms already omi t t ed in the Sommerfeld-Maue wave
function.
By integrating the probability (10.18) over the impact paramet er plane,
one obtains the sixfold differential cross section
d6a(p+, p_) = 4 P+p-Ep+Ep - (Zpe2" ~ 2
dEp+ dEp_ df~p+ dt2p_ (27r) 6 \ ] v
f ~_,~+ IMp+p_ (qb, %)12
,s_ 62
x + ( l o. 21)
Calculations for t he product i on of free electron-positron pairs in colli-
sions with relativistic heavy ions using Sommerfeld-Maue wave functions
have been carried out by i nt roduci ng simplifying approxi mat i ons [NIP82,
BeB88], as well as by using fully numerical met hods [Dec91]. Some inac-
curacies in t he l at t er work are corrected and t he anal yt i cal reduct i on is
pushed fart her in [IOE93] by use of t he t race t echni que for performing t he
calculations in spinor space. All integrals can be eval uat ed numerically us-
ing adapt i ve Mont e-Carl o techniques [Lep87]. For t he t ot al cross section,
seven-dimensional i nt egrat i ons are required.
A combi nat i on of existing pert urbat i ve results with t he equivalent-
phot on met hod (Sec. 10.2.3) is used by Eby [Eby89, Eby91], who also points
out a connection between t he two met hods and analyzes it in detailed cal-
culations.
Res ults with So mmerf el d-Maue wave f unct i o ns
In t he following, we present some results obt ai ned from first-order distorted-
wave calculations wi t h Sommerfeld-Maue wave functions [IOE93]. In some
cases, a compari son wi t h ot her t heoret i cal or experi ment al dat a is possible.
In a first step, t he calculation of t he angul ar correlation of pair produc-
tion as a function of t he relative azi mut hal angle between t he electron and
t he posi t ron direction [DeG90, IOE93] shows t hat t he electron and posi t ron
are preferably emi t t ed wi t h opposite t ransverse moment a yielding a distri-
but i on t hat is symmet ri c about 180 ~ .
Next, by averaging over t he azi mut hal correlation and fixing t he electron
and posi t ron energy, one may derive angul ar di st ri but i ons in t he l aborat ory
syst em as a function of t he electron and positron polar angles 0e and 0p. In
Figs. 10.4 and 10.5, t he polar angul ar di st ri but i ons for t he collision syst em
U 92+ -~- Au 79+ at 960 MeV/ u and for S 16+ -Jr- Au 79+ at 200 GeV/ u are
presented. In t he l at t er case, t he increase of t he Lorentz factor 7 causes
a striking localization of t he emi t t ed pairs in t he forward direction. This
behavior is also observed in t he process of pair creation by real phot ons
[BeM54, DAB54].
Having calculated t he angul ar distribution, one is in a position to dis-
cuss energy di st ri but i ons of electrons and positrons. In Figs. 10.6 and 10.7,
we consider t he single-differential cross sections da / dEp and da / dEe (with
Ep = Ep_, E~ = Ep+) for t he collision syst em p + U 92+ for t hree different
Lorentz factors "~. The cross sections for other projectiles may be easily
obt ai ned in per t ur bat i on t heory by scaling these results with t he square
Z 2 of t he projectile charge. Wi t h increasing values of 7, t he curves have a
decreasing slope, showing t hat more and more electrons and positrons wi t h
high energies are created. While for positrons, t he cross sections vanish at
1 0 -~
I
L_
if)
?' 10-2
>
..(3
v
Q.
C : :
-o 1 0 -3
" o
" o
" o
~ 1 0 -4
b
" 0
9 i i , i i , i
U 9 2+ - t - A u 7 9 +
0
0
Eu, b=960 MeV/u
E,=2.01 mc 2, Ep=2 mc z
1 2 0
9 1 8 0
0 5 0 6 0 9 0 1 20 1 5 0 t 8 0
Op ( d e g )
Fi g u r e 10. 4. Angul ar di st ri but i on in t he l abor at or y syst em of e+e - pairs (av-
eraged over t he azi mut hal di st ri but i on) as a funct i on of t he posi t ron polar angle
0p for different el ect ron pol ar angles 0e. The collision syst em is U 9e+ + Au ~9+ at
9 60 MeV/ u. From [IOE93].
1 02
0 1
, 1
2
1 0 ~
] ~ I 0 -I
10-2
" 0
~ 10_3
L~ 10-4
~
10-5
"~ l O- e
i , i , I , i i ,
0 $16+ + Au79+
~~o EL,,,,= 20 0 g e V / u
E,=8.01 mc 2, Ep=8 mc 2
60
90
120
I 0 - 7 i , i i I i I ,
3'0 6'0 910 120 150 180
Op ( d e g )
Fi g u r e 10. 5. Same as Fig. 10.4 but for t he collision syst em S 1 6 + Au 79+ at
200 GeV/ u. From [IOE93].
1 0 -I
>
(D
..Q
,., 1 0- 2
!, 1
' O
I o
" O
10-3
!
' I ' I ' I '
7 ' - 1 0 ~ P + U9 2 + -
.
- !
1 5 10 15 20
Ep ( m c 2)
Fi gure 10. 6. Si ngl e-di fferent i al cross sect i on in p + U 92+ collisions as a f unct i on
of t he posi t r on t ot al ener gy Ep for several values of t he Lor ent z fact or "7. For
ot her proj ect i l es, t he cross sect i on scales wi t h Z~. Fr om [IOE93].
10-1
>
(13
--Q 0 - 2
' O
13
" O
10-3
' 1 ' I ' I
I
7 =1 03 p " !- U 9 2+
3,,=1 02
" 7 =10 i
,
0 t 5 10 15 20
Ee (mc 2)
Fi g u r e 10. 7. Si ngl e-di fferent i al cross sect i on in p + U 92+ collisions as a f unct i on
of t he el ect ron t ot al ener gy Ee for several val ues of t he Lor ent z fact or "7. For
ot her proj ect i l es, t he cross sect i on scales wi t h Zp 2. Fr om [IOE93].
1 0 5 ! ~ . . . . . . . ' . . . . . . . . ' . . . . . . . . ' . . . . . . . . ' !
F
1 0 4 ~
, , 2 " . , - - -
I~ / . , f . "
o .-
1 0 2
o , " /
(D
101
10 o
1 01 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 0 4
L ore nt z f oc t or y
Fi gur e 10.8. Total cross section for pair production as a function of the Lorentz
factor 3' in a U 92+ + U 92+ collision. Dashed-dotted curve, first-order perturba-
tion theory with partial-wave expansion [BeG86a]. Dashed curve, QED calcu-
lation [BOS89]. Circles, combination of perturbative QED calculation with the
equivalent-photon method [Eby91]. Solid curve, first-order perturbation theory
with Sommerfeld-Maue wave functions. From [IOE93].
t he t hr eshol d energy Ep -- me c2 owing to Coul omb repulsion, t he el ect ron
cross sections t end to a finite value owing to t he Coul omb at t r act i on. The
dependence on t he posi t ron energy Ep is si mi l ar as t hat for t he pai r pro-
duct i on probabi l i t y at a fixed i mpact par amet er in Fig. 10.3. However, for
very large values of 7, t he part i al -wave expansi on wi t h I~ l _< 10 is no longer
valid, see Fig. 10.8.
In Fig. 10.8, we show t he dependence of t he t ot al cross section on t he
Lorent z fact or 7 in a U 92+ + U 92+ collision. The 7 values consi dered
cover t he energy range 1 Ge V/ u _< Elab _< 20 TeV/ u. Per t ur bat i on t heor y
wi t h Sommer f el d- Maue wave funct i ons is represent ed by t he solid curve.
The dash- dot t ed curve corresponds to first-order per t ur bat i on t heor y using
t he part i al -wave expansi on, see Eq. (10.17); t he dashed curve represent s
1 6
~ 1 2
>
Q)
c~
Q .
I ,I
- 0
b 4
-(3
I ' I ' I ' I ' I '
"'t', $16+ + AU79+
"l, ELob= 200G eV/ u
!
|
, I , I ~ I , I i I i
5 l O 1 5 20 25 50
E p ( m c 2)
Fi gure 10. 9. Single-differential cross sections in S 16+ ~- Au 79+ collisions at
E]~b = 200 GeV/u as a function of the total positron energy Ep. Dashed
curve, QED calculation [BOS89]. Solid curve, first-order perturbation theory with
Sommerfeld-Maue wave functions [IOE93]. Experimental data are from [VaD92].
results of QED calculations, see Sec. 10.2.1; and t he circles represent t he
equi val ent -phot on met hod for low energy t ransfer combined wi t h pert ur-
bat i ve QED calculation for high energy transfer. The last results agree
wi t h corresponding calculations by Racah [Rac37]. The Sommerfel d-Maue
results are in good accord wi t h those of t he partial-wave expansion for
_< 10. For high relativistic energies, t he partial-wave expansion, which
was confined to 1 <_ 10, begins to fail. At t he highest energies, t he results
of [BOS89] and those of [Eby91] slightly exceed the Sommerfel d-Maue cross
sections (20% at - t ' - 100 and 10% at higher values).
Fi gure 10.9 gives a compari son of t heoret i cal and experi ment al single-
differential cross sections da/dEp for t he collision syst em S 16+ + Au 79+
at Elab = 200 GeV/ u as a function of t he t ot al posi t ron energy Ep. The
different symbols represent measured cross sections at different magnet i c-
field settings. The solid curve shows results of per t ur bat i on t heory wi t h
Sommerfel d-Maue wave functions, while t he dashed curve is derived from
QED calculations. The discrepancy between the former t heory and t he
dat a may be due to a failure of t he Sommerfel d-Maue wave functions at
10.2. PRODUCTION OF FREE ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAIRS 297
low posi t ron energies.
1 0 . 2 . 3 Th e e q u i v a l e n t - p h o t o n me t h o d
It is shown in Sec. 3.4 t hat the electromagnetic field produced by an ex-
t remel y fast moving charge can be replaced with a short but intense pulse
of electromagnetic radi at i on composed of (almost) real photons. A real
(on-shell) phot on is characterized by the relation k 2 = a~ 2 - k 2 = 0 and by
transverse polarization.
Soon after the discovery of the positron, the equivalent-photon met hod
was applied to the product i on of electron-positron pairs in the collision
between very energetic charged particles. For early references, see Heitler
[Hei54]. In these calculations, one convolutes the cross section for the pro-
duct i on of an electron-positron pair by a real phot on in the field of a static
charge, with the phot on spect rum N(a~) representing the t ransi ent field
of the projectile. In a more symmet ri c formulation, bot h nuclear charges
in their center of mass are replaced with equivalent phot on pulses. This
is the t wo-phot on particle product i on mechanism, analyzed in detail in
the review article of Budnev et al. [BuG75]; a recent summar y is given in
[BOS92]. In this description, the t wo-phot on pair product i on cross section
~ is convoluted with the phot on spect ra N( w) and N( w' ) arising from
bot h collision partners. Such a description should be most appropri at e for
colliders in which extremely relativistic beams of count er-propagat i ng iden-
tical charges Ze intersect, so t hat the center-of-mass syst em coincides with
the l aborat ory frame.
In the current subsection, we discuss this situation, t hat is, we reduce
the process
Z + Z --~ Z + Z + e +e- (10.22)
to the subprocess
"~ + "7 ---, e + e- . (10.23)
For the maxi mum frequency occurring in Eq. (10.23), a rough est i mat e is
given in Eq. (3.47)
j_~c. (10.24)
C0max ~ bmin
For example, for the proposed Large Hadron Collider at CERN, one has
~ 3500, and if bmin is est i mat ed by the nuclear radius of Pb, one may
achieve ~COma x ~ 100 Ge V.
Differential cro s s s ectio n f o r pair pro ductio n in dis tant co llis io ns
If one is interested in di st ant collisions and the i mpact -paramet er de-
pendence is not relevant, t hen the pair product i on cross section may be
obt ai ned from the i mpact -paramet er-i nt egrat ed phot on flux N(02). One
may use Eq. (3.51) in conjunction with Eq. (3.48) for a point charge or
Eq. (3.66) for an extended charge distribution. As a cut-off paramet er en-
tering in Eq. (3.48), it is reasonable to choose the Compt on wavelength
Ac = 1~me = 386 fro. Adopt i ng this choice, Baron and Baur [BaB92]
calculate the differential pair product i on cross section in the form
-- / d021/d022 N(021)N(022)do-,), 3, (10.25) d o - p a i r
for a collider geometry, i.e., in the center-of-mass frame of the heavy ions.
However, since the energies 021 and 022 of the colliding phot ons are usually
different, the center-of-mass (or center-of moment um) frame of the 77 sub-
syst em is different for each combination of 021 and 022 and does not coincide
with the l aborat ory frame. In such a situation, it is convenient to express
the cross section o-~ in t erms of the invariant Mandel st am variables s, t,
and u defined in ]Eqs. (2.20) to (2.22). In the case of colliding photons, we
have
s = W 2 = 4021022, (10.26)
and, if Ep_, p_, and 0 are energy, moment um, and emission angle of the
posi t ron with respect to the direction of propagat i on of the phot on 022 in
t he l aborat ory system,
2 2021 (F_,p_ p_ COS 0 )
t - - m e - -
2 2022(Ep_ + p_ cos0), (10.27)
U - - / r t e - -
where the transverse moment a of the equivalent phot ons have been ne-
glected, since t hey are of the order 1/ 7 compared to the longitudinal ones.
This can be seen from the Poynt i ng vector (3.39) and its relative contri-
but i ons to the frequency spect rum (3.46) or from Fig. 3.6. The relation
(2.23) connecting s, t, and u t hen t ransl at es into the kinematical relation
2 02 102 2 - - 02 1 (g p_ - - p_ cos 0) + 022 (Ep_ + p_ cos 0). (10.28)
The covariant formulation of the on-shell phot on-phot on cross section o-~
within pert urbat i on t heory can be found in [BUG75] and [BeC82]. In the
l aborat ory system, one obtains [BaB92]
do-.)..), z
2 2
a 2 1 2 Wl W2 - - m e + (021022 - - me ) s i n 2 0
2wl w2 Ep+ Ep_ m 2 --1- (021022 - - m 2) sin2 0
2)2 sin 4 0
_ 2 ( ~ 1 ~ 2 - rn~ ~(col + x 2 - E p + -
[me 2 + (021022 - me 2) sin 2 0] 2
;
Ep_ ) d3p_.
(10.29)
1 0*4
"C" 10 *=
> .
1 0
~'~ 1 0
10 ~
"o
-' ~ 10-' " o
10-=0
10"
L-IO
1 0- "
..Q
10-"
C 10-'
" ~ 10_ =
" 0
~ ' 'LHC': =~;b :0.p; '
\ \ -,..4
l ~ ~ ,'o 1'2 ,'~ ,'6 ,'8 ~o
( . , v )
.~ %~ ' 'LHC':'~;b-:~ '
b ) : -
1 ~ 2' o , ' o ~' o g o , ~ o 1 ~o , ~ o , ~ o ,~ 0 20o
(MeV)
Fi g u r e 10. 10. Double-differential cross section for Pb s2+ + Pb s2+ collisions at
~/ = 3400 and fixed angles at 0 = 30 ~ 60 ~ 900 as a function of t he energy of
t he emi t t ed posi t ron (electron). Full lines correspond to Eq. (10.25) wi t h (10.29),
while t he dashed line is calculated from Eq. (10.30) for 0 = 90 ~ (a) Energy range
bet ween t hreshol d and 20 MeV, and (b) energy range bet ween 10 and 200 MeV.
From [BaB92].
The s ame angul ar di s t r i but i on also hol ds for t he e mi t t e d el ect r on. Bar on
and Ba ur [BaB92] also der i ve a compact anal yt i cal f or mul a val i d if (OJlaJ2-
2 whi ch r eads rne 2) sin 2 0 > > me,
d2~ = ct2Z4 8 Pl [ em] 2 2- sin20
de dft 37r2 ~ e3 In --~ sin 6 0 ' (10. 30)
wher e e, p ar e el ect r on or pos i t r on ener gy and mo me n t u m, e m= 0. 68 ~rne,
and it is as s umed t ha t t he l ogar i t hm is a sl owl y var yi ng f unct i on of t he
energi es. If e < < era, one is not ver y sensi t i ve t o t he cut -off pa r a me t e r bmin
ent er i ng in Eq. (3. 48).
Fi gur e 10.10 shows cal cul at ed ener gy s pect r a of pos i t r ons (or equi va-
l ent l y el ect r ons) f r om Pb 82+ + Pb s2+ collisions for LHC condi t i ons, i.e.,
b ~ b2
b
Fi gur e 10.11. Geometry in the impact parameter plane. Within the equivalent-
photon picture, the two photons collide at the point P with distances bl from
nucleus 1 and b2 from nucleus 2. The impact parameter b is directed from nucleus
1 (with radius R1) to nucleus 2 (with radius R2). From [BaB93, Bau90a].
for ~ = 3400. The spect ra for all values of 0 show a rat her sharp peak
near threshold. The analytical formula (10.30) is seen to give a rat her good
approximation to the numerically evaluated equation (10.25).
The t reat ment described here is intended for peripheral collisions, in
which the distance of closest approach in the collision stays much larger
t han the sum of the nuclear radii. Only then is it permissible to use photon
fluxes N(w), in which the integration over the impact paramet ers b has
already been performed. We now include the impact paramet er explicitly.
Impact-parameter-dependent cross s ectio ns
Since according to Eq. (10.24), the maxi mum frequency of virtual photons
and hence the probability for pair production strongly increases with de-
creasing impact paramet er, it is imperative to investigate the behavior of
the cross sections as a function of the impact paramet er b by using the pho-
ton flux N(wl b) defined in Eq. (3.70) for a point charge and in Eq. (3.69) for
an extended nucleus with the form factor f(k2). In analogy to Eq. (10.25),
the b-dependent probability for pair production in the frequency intervals
(~1, ~dl -~-dwl) and (w2, ~2 + dw2) is given by [BaB93]
d2gPair(b)dwl dw2 = / d2bl / d252 (~(b -~- b2- b l ) N( wl , b l ) N( w2, b2)
(s) sin 2 ~a ], (10.31)
[ cos: +
where s = W u = 4 Wlwu. The collision geometry projected into the impact-
paramet er plane is illustrated in Fig. 10.11 for colliding nuclei wi t h radii R1
and R2. The angle between bl and b2 is denot ed by ~, and a ~ and cr:y~
are the phot on- phot on cross sections for parallel and perpendi cul ar relative
polarization of the photons.
The cross section for pair product i on in the equi val ent -phot on approxi-
mat i on is obt ai ned by i nt egrat i ng over the phot on frequencies and over the
i mpact -paramet er plane as
O' pair - /d2b f dcul f d(M2/d2bl/d2b2c~(b--[-b2-bl)W(a21,bl)
(s) sin 2 ~] (10.32) c o s +
(s) -- a ~( s ) , the i nt egrat i on over bl and b2 can be carried If a ~ (s) - a~/
out, and one arrives at Eq. (10.25). The result, valid for extreme relativistic
collisions, has also been derived in a pert urbat i ve t r eat ment in [BaB93,
ViG93].
Figure 10.12 shows the one-phot on di st ri but i ons entering in Eq. (10.32)
in their dependence on the i mpact paramet er b for various choices of the
form factor and a fixed value of the Lorentz factor 7 = 3500 correspond-
ing to the maxi mum energy of the Large Hadron Collider [ViG93]. The
figure confirms t hat all form factors lead to the same result outside the ex-
t ended charge distribution. For small i mpact paramet ers, the results have
to be regarded wi t h some caut i on since the validity of the equi val ent -phot on
met hod breaks down if the assumpt i on of a const ant field across the trans-
verse linear dimension of the syst em is no longer satisfied, see See. 3.4.1.
The cross sections for the electromagnetic product i on of a fermion pair
in lowest order of a are given in the covariant form [BUG75, ViG93] as
c@y (s) -
and
47ra 2
( 4me 2 12m~) ( 6 m~) ] 4m~)
1 + s s2 L- 1 + s M O( s -
(10.33)
0" ,7 , ~
where
4 ~ [( s
8
s ~ L- 1 + s M O( s -
(10.34)
M
) - 21n ~m--~m + - 1
_ i l 4m~ .s
(10.35)
1 0 2 ~ _ " , . ; ; ; ; _
' . . . . . . _
I
>= l o 0
IE
_ 10 -2
3
" ~ 10-~
N
\ 10-6
1 0- o
I
10 M e u
m
i
. i
m
0 5 10 15 2 0
b ( fm )
Fi g u r e 10. 12. Phot on di st ri but i on N(w,b ) - n( ~, b) for a Pb nucleus and
"7 = 3500 as a function of t he i mpact par amet er b for different phot on energies.
The dash-dot t ed curve corresponds to a point-like nucleus, Eq. (3.70), t he ot her
curves to phot on di st ri but i ons (3.69) of ext ended charges: t he dashed line refers to
t he form factor (3.57) of a homogeneousl y charged sphere wi t h radius R0 -- 7.107
fm and t he solid line to t he Gaussi an form factor (3.58) with Q0 = 60 MeV. From
[ViG93].
Here, s - 4WlW2 _~ 4m~ is ens ur ed by t he Heavi si de st ep f unct i on O.
Equa t i ons (10. 33) and (10. 34) ar e equal l y val i d for t he el ect r omagnet i c pro-
duct i on of ot her f er mi on pai r s if t he el ect r on mass me is r epl aced by t he
cor r es pondi ng f er mi on mass. The cross sect i ons refer t o t he pr oduc t i on
by real (i.e., on-shel l ) phot ons . Off-shell cor r ect i ons can also be appl i ed
[BUG75, BaB93] and t ur n out t o be i mpor t a nt for e+e - pr oduct i ons wi t h
i nvar i ant masses W- ~ _< 1 GeV.
As is cus t omar y, we have used her e t he i nvar i ant mass W - v ~ -
V/4CdlCd 2 si nce t he final di l ept on s t at e depends on a numbe r of pa r a me t e r s
in t he col l i der ( l abor at or y) syst em. Anot he r conveni ent pa r a me t e r is t he
r api di t y X defi ned in Eq. (2. 15). Tr ans ver s e mo me n t a bei ng negl i gi bl e in
t he col l i der f r ame, one can defi ne t he t ot al ener gy as Cd 1 - ~- ( 2 2 and t he t ot al
mo me n t u m in t he be a m di r ect i on as pz - Cdl - - ~M2 . Fr om Eq. (2.18) it
follows t ha t
~ =
Pz D J1 - - ~22
m~c v/4 ~1~2
1 Wl w2 - s i n h ~l n (10.36)
2 a~2
so t hat from Eq. (2.15) t he r api di t y is
1 cO 1
X - ~ i n - - , (10.37)
O32
w eX and w2 w e-X .
or Wl - y - -5-
Rewri t i ng Eq. (10.31) in t er ms of t he variables W and X and adopt i ng an
off-shell correct ed phot on cross section ~ averaged over t he pol ari zat i ons,
one obt ai ns [BaB93]
/0- /0- /0
d2a - 27r b l db l b2 db2 d~ O( b - 2Ro) W
d W dx
N(Tw N(T - (10.38)
Here, it is explicitly assumed t hat t he nuclei wi t h radii R0 do not penet r at e
each ot her so t hat no nuclear debris and ot her hadroni c background arises.
Fi gure 10.13 shows t he differential cross section for e+e - pair pr oduct i on
as a funct i on of t he i nvari ant mass M - W for Lorent z factors 7 - 10
correspondi ng to t he SPS, 7 - 100 correspondi ng to RHIC, and 7 - 3400
correspondi ng t o LHC. The rapi di t y is t aken as X - 0, t hat is, Wl - w2.
It is seen t hat wi t h increasing "7, more collision energy becomes available
for pr oduci ng t he i nvari ant mass W. The cross sections for b _> 2R0 exceed
t he cross sections for el ect romagnet i c pair pr oduct i on at b < 2R0 by al most
one order of magni t ude [BaB93]. If t he sharp cut-off funct i on O( b - 2R0) is
repl aced wi t h a soft cut-off Fermi funct i on {1 + e xp[ ( b- 2Ro ) /a]} -1, where
a is a thickness par amet er , t he cross sections are not affected significantly.
Caut i o ni ng remark s
In concl udi ng this section, it is appr opr i at e to recall t he l i mi t at i ons of t he
equi val ent -phot on met hod. When replacing t he t ransi ent el ect romagnet i c
field of a fast -movi ng charge, two decisive appr oxi mat i ons are made: (a)
t he vi rt ual (off-shell) phot ons pr oduced by t he movi ng charge are replaced
wi t h real (on-shell) phot ons and (b) t he i mpact - par amet er - dependent elec-
t r omagnet i c fields pr oduced by t he movi ng charge are replaced wi t h plane
waves whose ampl i t udes do not vary in t he t ransverse direction. That is,
even if t he phot on spect r um is t aken t o be b dependent , t here is no com-
plete equivalence bet ween t he original field and its subst i t ut e for per t ur bed
syst ems t hat occupy a t ransverse space region comparabl e or larger t han
t he range Ab, over which t he original field changes appreciably.
1 0 s
0 4
> I -
r ~ 05
1 -
.Q
E 1 0 2 -
= o 1 01 -
~- , 0 o
>.- 1 -
" 1 o
~Z l O - t
"1o
~" 10 -z_
N
- u o-3_
-4
I O
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
LHC
e*e- production ~
2OSpb + z OSp b ~ '
o . 1 1 . 0
M ( G e V )
Fi gur e 10. 13. Double differential cross section for e + e- production as a function
of the invariant mass M - W for Y - X = 0 in Pb + Pb collisions. The impact
paramet er b > 2R0 is chosen so t hat the nuclei do not penet rat e each other
during the collision. The Lorentz factors are 7 -- 10 for the CERN Super Prot on
Synchrotron (SPS), 3' - 100 for the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC), and
7 = 3400 for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). From [BaB93].
Thi s l i mi t s t he appl i cabi l i t y of t he me t hod t o i mpact par amet er s b > >
Ab. For pai r pr oduct i on, one may t ake Ab _~ )~, since t he l ocal i zat i on of a
Di rac el ect ron t o bet t er t han t he Compt on wavel engt h ~c in itself requi res
t he use of negat i ve- ener gy st at es [NEW49]. In t he absence of ri gorous t est s
of t he vi abi l i t y of t he equi val ent - phot on met hod for i mpact par amet er s
b < < )~, resul t s for b compar abl e t o t he nucl ear radii shoul d be vi ewed wi t h
some caut i on.
In a quant i t at i ve way, t he appl i cabi l i t y of t he equi val ent - phot on met hod
for el ect r on- posi t r on pai r pr oduct i on is exami ned by Hencken et al. [HeT94]
in a compar i son wi t h exact l y cal cul at ed second- or der cross sect i ons for im-
pact par amet er s b - 0. In Eq. (10.32), t hen r - 0 and onl y a~.~(s) con-
t r i but es t o t he cross section. It t ur ns out t hat t he differential probabi l i t i es
cal cul at ed wi t h t he equi val ent - phot on me t hod are by mor e t han an order of
magni t ude t oo large for small emi ssi on angles ( < 0.1 ~ of t he posi t r on and
onl y begi n t o agree wi t h t he exact l y eval uat ed second-order probabi l i t i es
at angl es of mor e t han a few degrees. As t he t ot al pr obabi l i t y is domi nat ed
by forward emission, t he equi val ent - phot on met hod is not sui t abl e for a
descr i pt i on of el ect r on- posi t r on cr eat i on at small i mpact par amet er s.
10.3. BOUND- ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAI R PRODUCTI ON 305
10. 3 Bo u n d - e l e c t r o n - pos i t r on pai r produc -
t i on
When an el ect ron-posi t ron pair is creat ed in a relativistic heavy-ion colli-
sion, t he electron may find itself in a bound st at e of t he t arget or of t he pro-
jectile, provided its moment um can be accommodat ed in t he bound- st at e
moment um di st ri but i on. Since K -shell wave functions offer t he broadest
moment um spread, product i on in t he K -shell is domi nant .
In this subsection, we consider el ect ron-posi t ron pair format i on by t he
t ransi ent el ect romagnet i c field of a moving charge for t he case where t he
electron ends up in a bound st at e. Thi s product i on mechani sm is not a
capt ure or t ransfer process which is charact eri zed by a t ransi t i on between
two inertial frames moving wi t h respect to each other. However, in a full
two-center description, in principle it could happen t hat t he electron is
asympt ot i cal l y bound to one of the nuclei while t he posi t ron is in a contin-
uum st at e of t he ot her nucleus. We may denot e this transfer-like reaction,
which has not been t heoret i cal l y i nvest i gat ed so far, as "charge t ransfer
from t he negat i ve-energy cont i nuum". Presumabl y, this mechani sm would
not have t he charge dependence Z 2 charact eri st i c for a pert urbi ng nuclear
charge Z e and would be less i mpor t ant at high energies t han t he ionization-
like bound-free pair product i on discussed here.
Bound- el ect r on- free-positron (or bound-free) pair product i on changes
t he charge st at e of one of t he colliding ions, therefore, this process is of great
interest for t he design and operat i on of relativistic heavy-ion colliders. The
reason is t hat heavy ions whose charge st at e is decreased by one uni t get
lost from t he beam in t he storage ring, t hus limiting its l umi nosi t y and
lifetime. The pot ent i al har m is even great er because, in cont rast to all
electron capt ure processes, t he cross section for bound-free pair product i on
increases r at her t han decreases wi t h t he collision energy.
10. 3. 1 Fi rst - order pert urb at i on t heory
Let us consider t he process in which t he electron is creat ed in a K -shell orbit
of t he t arget . Since creat i on in a bound projectile st at e may be analogously
described in t he projectile syst em, this choice can be made wi t hout any loss
of generality.
In first-order t i me-dependent per t ur bat i on theory, t he differential prob-
ability for t he product i on of an electron in a bound st at e of t he t arget and
a posi t ron wi t h an energy Ep can be wri t t en as
dP( b ) _
E IAep(b) 12 (10.39)
dEp
t~p ~p ~te
306 CHAPTER 10. ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAI R PRODUCTI ON
10 -9
/ ~" ~- . ~
2 u I 0 -I 0
' E
e , ~ O.
N 1 0 - 1 1
. _ . 1 0 - 1 2
1 0 - 1 3 . . . . I . . . .
2 . 5 5 . 0 7. 5 1 0.0
Ep(mC z)
1 2. 5 1 5 . 0
Fi gur e 10.14. Differential cross section for bound-free pair production into
the K -shell in Zp + S 16+ collisions as a function of the positron energy Ep for
the laboratory projectile energies E = 1 (bottom), 15 (middle), and 100 (top)
GeV/u. Solid curves: partial-wave analysis; dashed curves: Darwin and Sommer-
feld-Maue wave functions. All quantities are given in relativistic units such t hat
h 2 / m 3 c 4 - 2.9 barn/keV and the kinetic energy of the positron is (Ep - 1)meC 2.
From [Bec87].
wi t h Aep(b) bei ng defined by Eq. (10.15), subj ect to t he only change t hat
qPp+ now is a bound- st at e Coul omb-Di rac wave funct i on ~e, see Eqs. (4.100)
and (4.101), while t he exact posi t ron cont i nuum wave funct i on is given
by t he part i al wave (4.113) and (4.115). The eval uat i on of Eq. (10.39)
proceeds along t he same lines as for ionization, see See. 6.3.
As an al t ernat i ve t o exact Dirac wave functions [BeG87a, Bec87], one
may also use appr oxi mat e electron and posi t ron st at es [Bec87] and t hus
avoid t he part i al -wave analysis. As an appr oxi mat i on to t he K -shell wave
function, one may choose t he Darwi n form (4.109) and for t he posi t ron st at e
t he Sommerfel d-Maue wave funct i on (4.133). These "quasirelativistic"
wave functions are valid if c~Z < < 1 and, consequently, only t he leading
t er ms of c~ZT are ret ai ned in t he derivation. Similarly, as in Sec. 10.2.2,
care has t o be t aken at which stage t he appr oxi mat i on is i nt roduced in
eval uat i ng Eq. (10.15). Rewri t i ng Eq. (5.109) for bound- el ect r on- posi t ron
10.3. BO UND- ELECTRON - POSI TRON PAI R PRODUCTI ON 307
pair product i on, we obt ai n from Eq. (10.15)
(~el(1 -- ~Ct z)ei q' rl ~p} =
+
1
~2
~ ( ~ e ] ( q x Ct x + qyC~y)ezqrl ~p). (10.40)
Ep n t- Ee
The first t er m on t he ri ght -hand side of Eq. (10.40) proport i onal to 1/ ? 2 =
1 - / 32 comes about as t he difference bet ween two mat r i x elements, which
al most cancel for large ~/ only if t hey are eval uat ed between exact eigen-
states. Wi t h t he reformul at i on (10.40), the correct asympt ot i c behavior of
t he cross section as (ln ? ) for y ~ oc is ensured even when approxi mat e
wave functions are used in eval uat i ng t he ri ght -hand side.
Using Darwi n and Sommerfel d-Maue wave functions (Sees. 4.3.3 and
4.4.3) for an electron and a posi t ron in t he t ar get pot ent i al and keeping t he
lowest-order t erms in c~Zw, t he angle-differential cross section d2cr/dEp df~p
and t he angl e-i nt egrat ed cross section dcr/dEp can be expressed as one-
di mensi onal integrals over t he moment um q. For t he r e s ul t i ng- somewhat
l engt hy f or mul a s - t he reader is referred to t he original paper by Becker
[Bec87].
Fi gure 10.14 shows t he angl e-i nt egrat ed cross section for bound-free pair
product i on in Zp + S 16+ collisions at 1, 15, and 100 GeV/ u as a function of
t he posi t ron t ot al energy. The solid curves are cal cul at ed wi t h approxi mat e
wave functions while t he dashed curves represent results obt ai ned from
a part i al -wave analysis. The results scale wi t h Z~. For high projectile
energies, t he curves differ because t he partial-wave expansion is cut off for
]np] > 10. The posi t ron spect ra are seen to follow a similar behavior as in
Fig. 10.3 for a fixed i mpact par amet er b and in Fig. 10.6 for t he b-integrated
cross section. Wi t h higher t arget charges, t he di screpancy between t he
met hods of calculation increases, so t hat for ZT -- 92 t he t r eat ment using
an c~Z expansi on underest i mat es t he cross section by about a factor of 4
compared to t he t r uncat ed partial-wave t r eat ment .
Combi ni ng t he projectile and t he t ar get charge dependence, t he cross
sections scale appr oxi mat el y as
dcr
dEp
o( (aZp)2 (aZT) 5 (10.41)
for c~Zp,w < < 1. Here, t he Z~ dependence reflects t he availability of high-
moment um component s in a bound- st at e wave function and also occurs for
charge transfer. In order to exhibit this dependence in Fig. 10.15, t he
t ot al cross sections obt ai ned by numeri cal l y i nt egrat i ng over t he posi t ron
spect ra are pl ot t ed in such a way t hat Eq. (10.41) gives a horizontal line
10-2
v
e ~a .
1' , 4
10
i --
N
N
. . . , ,
c)
10 -~,
! ! ! ! ! ! i 1 [ i ! ! ! ! ! l !
i
\ .
B
" \ ~\ !
\ \ .
\ .
i i i i ! , i l l l I I I I I i i
5 10 50 100
ZT
Fi gur e 10.15. Cross section for bound-electron (K -orbit) - positron pair pro-
duction as a function of the target charge for laboratory projectile energies E = 1
(bottom) and E = 15 (top) GeV/u. Solid curves: partial-wave expansion; dashed
curves: Darwin and Sommerfeld-Maue approximations; and dash-dot curves: Z 5
scaling. From [Bec87].
[Bec87]. The results derived from t he a Z expansion (solid line) and from
t he part i al wave expansion (dashed line) are in rat her good agreement wi t h
one anot her for not too high t arget charges. The simple scaling behavior
of Eq. (10.41) does not hold except for t he lowest charges Zp. A charge
dependence different from Eq. (10.41) has been obt ai ned by a convolution
prescri pt i on [RhBSg]; however, it has been criticized in [Eic90, Bau911.
Per t ur bat i ve est i mat es of t he cross sections for bound-free pair pro-
duct i on have been obt ai ned in a closed anal yt i cal form by Bert ul ani and
Baur [BeB88] for a Z < < 1 (in order to be able to use quasirelativistic wave
functions). For t he domi nant K -shell capt ure t hey get
1 [ l n ( ~) 5 ]
.bound ,-,o 3371" ( o~Zp) 2( OzZT) 6 j ~ e 27r~Zw 1
a~p ~ 10 _ - g (10.42)
where d = 0.681 is a number rel at ed to Eul er' s const ant and ~ = h/ me c is
t he Compt on wavelength. Equat i on (10.42) is valid [BeBS8] for 7 > 50 and
has t he same dependence on t arget and projectile charges for aZT < < 1 as
expressed by Eq. (10.41). The ratio of t he t ot al cross section for bound-free
10.3. BO UND- ELECTRON - POSI TRON PAI R PROD UCTI ON 309
pair product i on as compared to free pair product i on is obt ai ned as [BeB88]
. b o u n d 337r [ ( ~) ] - 2
Oe P ~ (OLZT) 3 In . (10.43)
r r f r e e 2 0
~e p
Thi s means t hat bound-free pair product i on becomes relatively more im-
por t ant for hi gh-Z t arget atoms, as is to be expect ed since hi gh-Z at oms
provide t he hi gh- moment um component s in their wave functions needed to
accommodat e energetic electrons.
Some ot her earlier calculations at t empt i ng to include into t he formu-
lation t he distortions of t he electron and posi t ron wave functions by t he
projectile are discussed in [Eic90]. Some of t he remarks made in Sec. 8.6
appl y here as well. So far, t here seems to be no fully sat i sfact ory t reat -
ment of these di st ort i on effects, which remai n an i mpor t ant probl em for
t he future.
For very high values of t he Lorentz factor 3' typical for colliders, a sim-
plified t r eat ment is possible. Baltz et al. [BAR91] show t hat a considerable
simplification is achieved by expandi ng t he multipole mat r i x elements de-
fined in analogy to (6.47) in t erms of t he small par amet er 1/3, and ret ai ni ng
only t he first-order term. Moreover, this expansion allows one to separat e
t he i nt eract i on into 3,-independent and 7-dependent terms. In analogy to
t he technique of removing t he t roubl esome 1/ R long-range t erms in t he for-
mul at i on of excitation, ionization, and charge t ransfer by a suitable gauge
t ransformat i on [ToE90b] (see Secs. 6.1.2, 8.3, and 8.7), t he 7 dependence for
small i mpact par amet er s b can also be removed up to higher-order t erms
in 1/ 7. Thi s means t hat t he cont ri but i ons to t he cross section from t he
small b range, which requires a nonper t ur bat i ve calculation because of t he
st rong Coul omb i nt eract i on (see Sec. 10.3.2), are i ndependent of "7. On t he
ot her hand, in t he per t ur bat i ve regime for b larger t han about 5)~, t he 7
dependence is given by In 7, in accordance wi t h %% (10.42). As a result,
Baltz et al. [BaR91] predict t he t ot al cross section for bound- e l e c t r on-
free-positron pair product i on to be of t he form
b o u n d _ A In 7 + B (10.44)
e p ~
where 7 = 7FT is t he equivalent fixed-target Lorentz par amet er (10.2) and
A as well as B are i ndependent of 7 (to wi t hi n higher orders of 1/~). The
quant i t y A has to be est i mat ed from per t ur bat i on theory, while B receives
cont ri but i ons from t he per t ur bat i ve as well as t he nonper t ur bat i ve i mpact
par amet er range. In a detailed est i mat e, Baltz et al. [BaR93a] arrive at a
relation for Au 79+ -t- Au 79+ collisions as
o . b o u n d
ep ~ (11.2 In 7 - 14.0) barn. (10.45)
310 CHAPTER 10. ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAIR PROD UCTION
For a (fixed-target) value ")/FT - - 2.33 x 104, one has _bound ~ 99 barn
Oe p , ~
For further results on Pb + Pb collisions using very large basis sets, see
also [BaR94]. It is worthwhile mentioning t hat the simple estimate of
Eq. (10.42), applicable to a Z < < 1, has the same st ruct ure as Eq. (10.44).
10. 3. 2 No n pe r t u r b a t i v e c al c ul at i ons
One expects t hat pert urbat i on t heory breaks down for the description of
pair product i on in collisions of very heavy ions (Au + Au, U + U) at
very small impact paramet ers b since the interaction t hen becomes very
strong. Carryi ng the t r eat ment beyond lowest-order pert urbat i on t heory
will lead to two consequences: first, there will be a modification of the
pert urbat i ve results for single pair production; and second, one will obt ai n
a finite probability for the product i on of multiple electron-positron pairs, to
be discussed in Sec. 10.4 t oget her with the bounds imposed by the uni t ari t y
requirement.
While nonpert urbat i ve calculations for free electron-positron pairs have
to cope with the difficulty of handling two cont i nuum states, bound-free pair
product i on is more accessible to a theoretical t reat ment since it involves one
bound and one cont i nuum state, similarly as ionization, see Secs. 6.4 - 6.6.
We st art our discussion with numerical solutions of the t i me-dependent
Dirac equat i on on a grid and t hen proceed to coupled-channel calculations.
Finite-dif f erence metho ds
The most direct way to solve the t i me-dependent Dirac equat i on (5.39)
[ ZT e2 Zpe 2
i ~ ~( r T, t) -- [ - - i a- VT ~(1 --/3a~) ~ + me7 ~ t~(rT, t)
r T r p
(10.46)
is by purely numerical met hods on a grid. Together with their t r eat ment
of ionization, see Sec 6.4, Thiel et al. [ThB92] solve Eq. (10.46) for U 92+
+ U91+(ls) collisions at 10 GeV/ u assuming an impact paramet er b = 0.
In this way, t hey enforce cylindrical symmet r y and keep the problem at
two dimensions in space. The impact paramet er b = 0 carries zero weight
for the cross section, but it should be most suitable to st udy nonpert ur-
bative effects. The numerical met hods are outlined in Sec. 6.4. In the
initial state, at a time when the projectile is about 5.7 urani um K -shell
radii away, the hydrogenic t arget at om is assumed to be in an unper t ur bed
lSl/2 ground state. The time evolution of the electron density is depicted
in Fig. 6.11. The final wave function is proj ect ed onto excited t arget states,
positive-energy cont i nuum states for ionization, and negative-energy con-
t i nuum st at es for bound-free pair production. The numerical results show
10.3. BOUND- ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAIR PRODUCTI ON 311
the strongly nonpert urbat i ve character of pair production in collisions be-
tween the heaviest ions at zero impact parameters. The probability for pair
production is about two orders of magnitude larger t han the value obtained
in pert urbat i on theory. This is in qualitative agreement with earlier results
of Strayer et al. [StB90] obtained by solving the Dirac equation on a lattice
using a so-called B-spline collocation method.
As has been pointed out in [Eic90] and [BaR93b], the observed nonper-
turbative effects may be strongly dependent on the gauge chosen for solving
Eq. (10.46). To put it simply, the long-range electromagnetic interaction in
Eq. (10.46) cannot be expected to leave the target atom still unpert urbed
at a distance of a few K -shell radii. For a more realistic solution, it is
necessary to remove the long-range part of the interaction by a suitable
gauge transformation (e.g., by imposing Coulomb boundary conditions),
see Sec. 6.1.2.
Wells et al. [WeO92] use a computationally efficient basis-spline collo-
cation met hod [BOS87, UmW91] to calculate bound-free muon pair produc-
tion (for computational ease) in Au 79+ + Au 79+ collisions at 100 GeV/ u
collider energy. In particular, they discuss the influence of the gauge chosen
for the calculation. In agreement with the observations made above, they
find the Lorentz gauge embodied in Eq. (10.46) too demanding computa-
tionally because of the long transverse range and the compression in the
z-direction of the interaction which requires very small time steps. Instead,
they propose an "axial gauge," which is similar to the gauge discussed in
See. 6.5.4 and is regarded to be more suitable t han the Lorentz gauge for
the lattice implementation in extreme relativistic collisions.
Sing le-center co upled-channel calculatio ns
Another met hod to investigate the nonpert urbat i ve behavior at small im-
pact parameters is furnished by single-center coupled-channel calculations
[RUM91, RuS93]. These calculations are discussed in the context of ion-
ization in Sec. 6.6.2. The continuum states of the positron are described
by st at i onary wave packets (6.74) and the interaction is decomposed into
multipoles in coordinate space, see See. 6.3.1.
Figure 10.16 shows the dependence of bound-free pair creation probabil-
ity on the impact parameter b for 1.2-GeV/u Pb + Pb collisions. At small
impact parameters, we notice the large deviation of pert urbat i on theory
from the results of coupled-channel calculations. Wi t h increasing impact
parameters, the ratio of the probabilities quickly decreases, and for b > 600
fin ~ aK , pert urbat i on theory yields about the same results as coupled-
channel calculations. The rate of pair production then decreases almost
exponentially with the impact parameter.
1 0- 3
A
. 0
1 0
lO- S
0
" ' I ' I ' I ' I ' I '
o,
%%%%%% %%
.. ...
.. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ..
, I | I | I i I i I - ~ i
I 00 20 0 30 0 tOO 5 0 0
b If m)
Fi gur e 10.16. Probability for bound-electron (K -orbit) - positron pair produc-
tion in 1.2-GeV/u Pb + Pb collisions as a function of the impact parameter b.
Dashed line: coupled-channel calculations; solid line: perturbation theory. From
[RuS93].
While coupled-channel calculations with an infinitely large basis set
are equivalent to solving the Dirac equation exactly and hence are gauge-
independent, calculations with a small basis size depend strongly on the
choice of the gauge [BaR93b]. Therefore, the comparison between nonper-
t urbat i ve and pert urbat i ve calculations is affected by the gauge and the size
of the basis set. Baltz et al. [BAR94] have investigated the 1. 2-GeV/ u Pb
+ Pb syst em in detail, using the st andard Lorentz gauge of [RuS93]. They
find t hat the enhancement of the nonpert urbat i ve over the per t ur bat i on
t heory results is decreased from almost two orders of magni t ude to a factor
of 9 at b ~ 0, if the basis size is increased t o Inmax[ = 6 and to the maxi mum
posi t ron energy IEmaxl = 14.4m~c 2. Quite generally, the nonpert urbat i ve
enhancement decreases at every impact paramet er with increasing size of
the basis set. For the t ot al cross section, there is almost no enhancement
over the pert urbat i ve value.
Two -cent er co upled-channel calculatio ns
It would be desirable to perform two-center coupled-channel calculations,
which t reat t arget and projectile on equal footing. They allow the pair to
be created by the projectile in the t arget frame and by the t arget in the
10.3. BOUND- ELECTRON- POSITRON PAIR PRODUCTION 313
projectile frame. As has been discussed in Sec. 6.5.1, calculations in which
the basis st at es are centered around the t arget as well as around the pro-
jectile nucleus, provide more flexibility of the expansion in the interaction
region and allow for transfer channels in the i nt ermedi at e states. In partic-
ular, charge transfer from the negative-energy cont i nuum of the t arget to
a bound st at e of the projectile (and vice vers a) would be included in this
description as a possible reaction mechanism. Unfortunately, calculations
are not available at present owing to the difficulties of including cont i nuum
channels at bot h centers.
Mag nus expans io n o f the t i me evo lutio n o perato r
A different nonpert urbat i ve approach st art s from the time development
A
operat or U(t2,tl), which describes the time evolution of the syst em from
the earlier time tl to the later time t2 and is defined by I~(t2)) =
u ( t 2, t l ) [ ~( t l ) } . In the interaction representation, for tl --+ - o c and
t2 ~ +ec, it is given explicitly by the expression [GoW64]
g ( +o c , - e c ) - T exp - g /-/i(t) dt , (10.47)
( X 3
A A
where T is the time-ordering operat or and Hi ( t ) is the interaction Hamil-
t oni an in the interaction picture [Sch61]. Inst ead of expanding the expo-
nential into the usual per t ur bat i on series (5.66), one may use a commut at or
expansion of the exponent known as the Magnus expansion [Mag54, PeL66,
BrM92]. It has the merit of manifestly ensuring uni t ari t y and gauge invari-
ance in each order of the approximation. Such a t r eat ment was applied
to nonrelativistic ionization of hydrogen by hi gh-Z projectiles [Eic77] in
order to avoid the overestimates of ionization probabilities at small impact
paramet ers obt ai ned from first-order per t ur bat i on theory. In the extension
of this approach to pair product i on lion94], the interaction of the electron
and posi t ron with the projectile is included to all orders in the projectile
charge Zpe by adopt i ng two basic assumptions: (a) the correlations between
the interactions at different times [effected by the time-ordering operat or
A
T in Eq. (5.66)] are neglected. This is a reasonable approxi mat i on if the
effective collision time At _~ b /~/v, see Eq. (3.37), is short compared to the
relevant electronic t ransi t i on time ~- _~ h / AE, where AE is the energy dif-
ference between initial and final states. (b) Int ermedi at e multipair states
are disregarded.
Let ~ep(b ) be the part i al first-order probability for creating a pair in
the specific st at e (e, p), where e = {p+, s+} and p = {p_, s_} denote a
set of moment um and spin quant um numbers of electron and positron, re-
spectively, see also See. 10.4.2. If now P(1)(b) - }-~e,p 7 )ep(b ) is the t ot al
perturbative probability for creating a single pair, then the partial prob-
ability of pair production within the Magnus approximation is derived as
[Ion94]
P~Mag(b) -- Pep(b ) sin2 v/P(1)(b) (10.48)
p(1) (b) "
An analogous expression was derived in [Wi183] for nonrelativistic ionization
and in [RyW78] for nonrelativistic electron transfer. By summing over all
electron-positron states e, p, one verifies t hat the total probability cannot
exceed unity, as required by unitarity.
One may regard Eq. (10.48) as a result of unitarizing pert urbat i on the-
ory [MoG93]. In fact, the total pair production probability within the
Magnus approximation is always less t han the total first-order probability.
On the other hand, a comparison of the results of coupled-channel calcula-
tions with those of pert urbat i on theory for bound-free pair production, see
Fig. 10.16, shows t hat , according to [MoG93], the nonpert urbat i ve prob-
abilities exceed the perturbative results at small impact parameters and
moderate relativistic energies.
1 0 . 3 . 3 Ex p e r i me n t a l r e s u l t s
The first observation and measurement of bound- el ect r on- positron pair
production has been reported by Belkacem et al. [BeG93]. The experiment
was performed at Lawrence Berkeley Laborat ory' s BEVALAC accelerator
using 0.956 GeV/ u U 92+ ions incident on thin, fixed targets of At , Ag, Cu,
and mylar.
The positrons were detected in coincidence with the charge state of the
emerging projectile using an advanced positron spectrometer, see Fig. 13.7.
The spectrometer has a very high acceptance of electrons and positrons
emitted bot h forward and backward with respect to the beam direction.
By measuring the time of flight of the electrons and positrons for a given
energy in the strong field of the solenoid, it is possible to determine the
angle of emission with respect to the beam direction.
A comparison of the positron spectra at forward and backward an-
gles with respect to the beam direction indicates t hat positrons emitted
at higher energies are also emitted at smaller (more forward) angles. The
measured total cross section for bound-free pair production by 0.956 GeV/ u
U 92+ on a Au target is 2.19 + 0.25 b. The cross section for free pair pro-
duction in the same collision is 3.30 + 0.65 b. This is to be compared with
a theoretical perturbative value of 1.01 b for bound-free pair production
[Bec87] and for free pair production with the values of 5.1 b [BeG86a] and
1.25 b of [Dec91]. The cross section for bound-free production varies ap-
10.4. MULTI PLE PAI R PRODUCTI ON 315
proximately as Z~ s+~ as compared to the Z~ dependence expected from
perturbation theory.
Experiments [BEG94] including La aT+ projectiles yield a target charge
dependence as Z~ 95+~176 for 0.956 GeV/ u and Z~ "65+~ at 1.3 GeV/u,
while the projectile charge dependence is Z~ 54+~ This is roughly in line
with Eq. (10.41) if ZT and Zp are interchanged, because the bound electron
is created in the projectile, not in the target.
10.4 Mul ti pl e pair producti on
In the discussion of bound-free pair production, Sec.10.3, indications emerge
t hat for collisions between high-Z ions at small impact parameters b, per-
turbation theory breaks down and higher-order effects have to be taken
into account. These calculations, while still burdened with the problem of
gauge dependence, give a hint that similar effects must also be expected for
the production of free electron-positron pairs.
10.4.1 Li mi ts of perturb ati v e probabi l i ti es for single-
pair producti on
Limitations become already evident in perturbative calculations following
the early work of Bethe, Maximon, and Davies [BeM54, DAB54]. Disregard-
ing Coulomb corrections proportional to the logarithm in 7 of the Lorentz
factor and assuming Er Ep >> m~, one obtains an approximate analytical
expression [Bau90b] for the first-order impact-parameter-dependent pair
production probability in the form
14 (C~ZT) 2 2/ ~ ( 7dAc) (10.49)
g ( x ) ( b ) - ~ 2 ( o / Z p ) ~-~ In 2 2b '
where d - 0.681 [compare Eq. (10.42) for bound-free pair production]. This
expression is valid for )% _< b _< 7dAr For Pb + Pb collisions at 7FT =
3 107, see Eq. (10.2), and b - )%, one obtains a probability p( 1) ( ~) _ 5.3,
which clearly shows the need for a nonperturbative treatment.
Another violation of unitarity is observed in the total cross section at
asymptotically large values of 7. Froissard has derived an upper bound on
the total cross section of two strongly interacting particles colliding with
the invariant energy W - v G, see Eq. (2.20), by using the Mandelstam
representation [Fro61] (for a review see [Val91]) as
~tot _< const. ln2 ( 8 ) - - as s -~ oc, (10.50)
80
316 CHAPTER 10. ELECTRON- POSI TRON PAIR PRODUCTION
where So is a constant. It is usually assumed t hat this relation is also
valid for el ect romagnet i c processes. If this is so, and since I ns o( In 7 for
large values of 7, we have O'to t ~ const, x ln2(7/70), in cont radi ct i on to t he
asympt ot i c 7 dependence of t he part i al cross section (10.1), proport i onal
to l n3(7/ 70), for single-pair product i on. Anot her brief discussion of t he
asympt ot i c behavior of pair creat i on can be found in [Bau90c], where also
furt her references are given. Whi l e such discussions of uni t ari t y may be
only of academi c interest as long as it is not specified what asympt ot i cal l y
large values of 7 mean, t hey point in the same direction as Eq. (10.49),
namel y t hat higher-order effects become i mpor t ant .
1 0 . 4 . 2 Mu l t i p l e p r o d u c t i o n o f i n d e p e n d e n t e l e c t r o n -
p o s i t r o n p a i r s
Violation of uni t ari t y in per t ur bat i ve results for ext reme relativistic col-
lisions between hi gh-Z ions indicates t hat some of the probabi l i t y flux is
di vert ed into other react i on channels, in part i cul ar into mul t i pl e pair pro-
duction.
We give here a very simple discussion of multiple product i on of free
electron posi t ron pairs, 2 which, in fact, is t he common root of various more
sophi st i cat ed t r eat ment s t hat have been published so far. The basic as-
sumpt i ons, wi t hout which a t heory would become exceedingly complicated,
are t he following: (a) The energy of the colliding hi gh-Z ions is so large
t hat even t he product i on of several pairs does not change their energies or
t raj ect ori es. (b) The pairs are creat ed compl et el y i ndependent l y of each
other. This means t hat electrons and positrons do not i nt eract wi t h one
anot her (this is a 1/ Z correction) and are not subj ect to t he Pauli principle.
Bot h assumpt i ons should be well justified for ext reme relativistic collisions
of, say, Au on Au or Pb on Pb.
Let us now suppose t hat we have cal cul at ed an i mpact - par amet er -
dependent t ransi t i on ampl i t ude Ap+p_ (b ) = A~p(b ), for exampl e from Eqs.
(10.15) and (10.19), where e = {p+, s +} and p = { p _ , s _ } denot e a set
of moment um and spin quant um numbers of electron and positron, respec-
tively. Then t he first-order probabi l i t y of finding an electron in a st at e e
after t he collision is
7)~(b) - E 7)~p (b) - ~ I A~p ]2. ( 10.5 1)
P P
As long as P~(b ) < < 1, t here is no violation of uni t ari t y and we may t ake
[1 - P~(b)] as t he probabi l i t y of no t having creat ed an electron in t he st at e
2Mul t i pl e bound-free pai r pr oduct i on is not expect ed to compet e wi t h free pair cre-
at i on because of t he rest ri ct ed phase space.
10.4. MULTIPLE PAIR PROD UCTION 317
e. In general, however, it is necessary to obt ai n t he single-electron proba-
bilities from more exact met hods like coupl ed-channel calculations, which
ri gorousl y satisfy t he uni t ar i t y requi rement . The probabi l i t y t hat only one
electronic st at e e and no o ther posi t i ve-energy st at e is occupied is t hen
P~(1, b) - T'~(b) H [1 - P~,(b)], (10.52)
where t he number N - 1 in P~(1, b) indicates t hat only one electron has
been created. In wri t i ng down t he pr oduct (10.52), t he assumpt i on (b),
listed above, of i ndependent probabi l i t i es has been used. From here we get
t he probabi l i t y t hat exact l y one electron (i.e., because of summat i on over
posi t ron st at es, one pair) is creat ed in any st at e as
P( 1, b) - E T'~(b) H [1 - 7)~,(b)]. (10.53)
e Ctr
Rewri t i ng t he pr oduct t er m in Eq. (10.53), we find
P( 1, b) - EP~( b ) exp ( E ln[ l - Pc,(b)] ~' r
,~ Z T'~(b) exp ( - Z T)~,(b)) ~, (10.54)
1 Z 2
where we have used t he first t er m in t he expansi on l n ( l + x) - x - ~ +- . .
of t he l ogar i t hm and no longer exclude t he t er m e ~ - e from t he sum, owing
t o t he smallness of P~,(b ) for any given st at e d.
Proceedi ng t o two electrons 11,12, irrespective of t hei r per mut at i on, we
have
1
Pel e2( 2' b) -- -~.~ p e l ( b ) p e 2 ( b ) H [1 - 7)~, (b)], (10.55)
e' :J=e 1, ct-~= 62
and, di scardi ng hi gher-order t erms in t he small quant i t i es P~,(b ),
P( 2, b) ~ ~ T'r exp - P~,(b) . (10.56)
In general, for N pairs, wi t h
P(b ) - E Pc( b ) - E Ar 12' (10.57)
e e , p
we obtain the Poisson distribution
P( N, b) - [ T' (b )lN
N! e-~'(b)' (10.58)
which one would expect for independent events. One verifies that the total
probability for creating 0, 1, 2, - . . pairs in a single collision is in agreement
with the unitarity requirement. The average number of pairs
(x)
E N P( N, b ) - P(b ) (10.59)
N=I
provides an interesting interpretation of the perturbative (or nonperturba-
tive) single-pair probability P(b). Since the derivation of Eqs. (10.58) and
(10.59) is based on the assumption that each individual 7)r < < 1 but
does not require P(b) = }-~r T'r < < 1, Eq. (10.59) offers a possibility to
give meaning to unitarity-violating perturbative total pair creation prob-
abilities. Under all the assumptions outlined above, creation probabilities
larger t han one express, in an approximate fashion, that - on the average
- more t han one electron-positron pair is produced. In this sense, pertur-
bation theory can still be used when it yields probabilities exceeding unity.
The Poisson distribution (10.58) has been derived in several ways. Baur
[Bau91] used a "sudden approximation" to the S-matrix and a quasi-Boson
approximation for describing electron-positron pairs, thus discarding the
Pauli principle. Rhoades-Brown and Weneser [RhW91] perform a summa-
tion of a perturbational subseries of selected Feynman diagrams including
the interaction between the colliding ions and the electron-positron pairs
to all orders but dropping the interaction between the leptons. They also
discuss coupled-channel calculations. Best et al. [BEG92] adopt a simi-
lar nonperturbative approach neglecting quantum mechanical interference
terms. While these works differ in the theoretical methods used, they are
based essentially on the same assumptions, namely the complete indepen-
dence of the individual pair production processes. In each case, it is the
goal to derive the structure of Eq. (10.58), not the input probability 7 :' (5).
The single-pair probabilities for extreme relativistic collisions may be
estimated in several ways, as discussed in Sec. 10.2. One may use lowest-
order QED calculations (Sec. 10.2.1), first-order perturbation theory with
distorted waves (Sec. 10.2.2), or the equivalent-photon method (Sec. 10.2.3).
Coupled-channel calculations for free electron-positron pairs have not been
performed so far, owing to computational difficulties.
As a simple application, we show in Figs. 10.17 and 10.18 the N-
pair probability distributions [RhW91] calculated from Eq. (10.58) and
10.4. MULTI PLE PAIR PRODUCTI ON 319
101
10 0
10 -1
~, 10 .2
a ~ 10. 3
10 .4
10-5
I I I I I I I I I
% = 38.2 kba rn
~ N1
= a 3 PAIR = 4 37 ba rn
a 4~PAIR = 114 ba rn
~~. ~. ~ = 28 ba rn
f',,.=\ N=3
~ \ N=4
!L" \ N-5
1-PAIR = 32.3 kba rn
a 2-PAIR = 1.9 6 kba rn
~. " P1(b)
l ~ . '
I~ ~ x,q
10-6 I ' \ I I I I I I I
0 8 16 24 32 40 x l 03
I F "
! i ' '
. "\
\ .
I
b (fro)
Fi g u r e 10. 17. Pr obabi l i t y di st r i but i on for N- pai r pr oduct i on in Au + Au colli-
sions at t he hi ghest RHI C energy wi t h ~FT -- 2 104 as a funct i on of t he i mpact
par amet er b (in uni t s of 103). Here, P1 (b) is t he per t ur bat i ve resul t correspondi ng
t o Eq. (10.49). It devi at es from P( 1, b) of Eq. (10.58) onl y at t he smal l est i mpact
par amet er s shown. Fr om [RhW91].
101
I I I I I I I I I
|
10 0 ~ % = 240.7 kbarn a 1-PAIR = 192.4 kbarn _
...L N 1 a 2-PAIR = 9.9 kba rn
10.1 ~-' ~ = a 3-PAIR = 3.3 kba rn _
~\ ~ ~4-PAIR = 1.5 kba rn
~i \ ~ a 5PA I R = 820 b a rn
._ . 10 .2 -
" " 10 .3 ~i " .W---N=2 ~ -
I
I ~, " - "x '~-"
10 .4 --I~ ".. -',,
I IL.," P l ( b )
I ~- ".. " - . , N = 4 .
10 .5
I I "...
o-6 l ' , 1
0 8
~'.,,. N=5
~o~
I 1 ~ . . .
16
! I I I !
b (f m)
24 3 2 4o x o 3
Fi g u r e 10. 18. Same as Fi gure 10.17, but for Pb + Pb collisions at t he hi ghest
LHC energy wi t h YET - - 3 x 107. Fr om [RhW91].
from Eq. (10.49) for t he approxi mat e single-pair product i on probabi l i t y
7)(b) - P(1)(b). Also shown in these figures are the original lowest-order
per t ur bat i ve results (10.49). The curves are pl ot t ed for the highest envi-
sioned beam energies and charge numbers of the respective facilities. It
can be seen t hat single-pair creation domi nat es the picture at RHIC as well
as at LHC. The N- pai r product i on probabilities with N _> 2 are seen to
decrease ver yr api dl y for t he depicted i mpact - par amet er range b _> ~.
The met hod outlined in this section will certainly have limitations when
t he i mpact paramet ers become very small, t hat is when t hey get close to t he
sum of t he nuclear radii. Then t he probabi l i t y for single-pair product i on
has to be calculated nonpert urbat i vel y and may become very large. It is not
cert ai n whet her the basic assumpt i ons for deriving t he Poisson di st ri but i ons
(10.58) are justified any longer. However, for t he t ot al pair multiplicity, t he
regime of very small i mpact paramet ers carries little weight.

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