First observations of beam losses due to bound-free pair production in a heavy-ion collider

Abstract

We report the first observations of beam losses due to bound-free pair production at the interaction point of a heavy-ion collider. This process is expected to be a major luminosity limit for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) when it operates with 208Pb82+ ions because the localized energy deposition by the lost ions may quench superconducting magnet coils. Measurements were performed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) during operation with 100 GeV/nucleon 63Cu29+ ions. At RHIC, the rate, energy and magnetic field are low enough so that magnet quenching is not an issue. The hadronic showers produced when the single-electron ions struck the RHIC beampipe were observed using an array of photodiodes. The measurement confirms the order of magnitude of the theoretical cross section previously calculated by others.

4 pages, 5 figures. Added journal ref. Corrected typos. Fixed fig 1. Minor improvements to fig. 1,3,4. Rephrased a small number of sentences (p1,3,4). Added numerical values of the aperture and the displacement for Au (p 2). Changed reference 5, added name in acknowledgments (p 4)

Cited by in corpus (16)

• The Physics of Ultraperipheral Collisions at the LHC
• Beam losses from ultra-peripheral nuclear collisions between Pb ions in the Large Hadron Collider and their alleviation
• Overview of high-density QCD studies with the CMS experiment at the LHC
• Bound-free pair production in ultra-relativistic ion collisions at the LHC collider: Analytic approach to the total and differential cross sections
• Performance and luminosity models for heavy-ion operation at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
• Bound-free ${\mathbf{e}}^{+}{\mathbf{e}}^{-}$ pair creation with a linearly polarized laser field and a nuclear field
• Collimation of partially stripped ions in the CERN Large Hadron Collider
• Negative-continuum dielectronic recombination into excited states of highly-charged ions
• Bound-free pair production cross section in heavy-ion colliders from the equivalent photon approach
• Coherent photon-photon interactions in very peripheral relativistic heavy ion collisions
• Bound-free pair production from nuclear collisions and the steady-state quench limit of the main dipole magnets of the CERN Large Hadron Collider
• Bound-free pair production in relativistic nuclear collisions from the NICA to the HE LHC colliders
• Heavy ion beam loss mechanisms at an electron-ion collider
• Exchange of high and low energy photons in ultraperipheral relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Charting the Luminosity Capabilities of the CERN Large Hadron Collider with Various Nuclear Species
• Photoproduction in Ultra-Peripheral Heavy-Ion Collisions