STARlight: A Monte Carlo simulation program for ultra-peripheral collisions of relativistic ions

Abstract

Ultra-peripheral collisions (UPCs) have been a significant source of study at RHIC and the LHC. In these collisions, the two colliding nuclei interact electromagnetically, via two-photon or photonuclear interactions, but not hadronically; they effectively miss each other. Photonuclear interactions produce vector meson states or more general photonuclear final states, while two-photon interactions can produce lepton or meson pairs, or single mesons. In these interactions, the collision geometry plays a major role. We present a program, STARlight, that calculates the cross-sections for a variety of UPC final states and also creates, via Monte Carlo simulation, events for use in determining detector efficiency.

15 pages; final version with a few minor bugs corrected

References in corpus (12)

• Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
• The Physics of Ultraperipheral Collisions at the LHC
• Observation of exclusive charmonium production and gamma+gamma to mu+mu- in p+pbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV
• Exclusive J/$\psi$ photoproduction off protons in ultra-peripheral p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• Exclusive $J/\psi$ and $\psi (2S)$ production in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV
• J/Psi production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb and p+Pb collisions at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
• Exclusive diffractive processes in electron-ion collisions
• Observation of Two-source Interference in the Photoproduction Reaction $AuAu\to AuAu{\rho }^0$
• Generalized parton distributions and rapidity gap survival in exclusive diffractive pp scattering
• Single and Double Photonuclear Excitations in Pb+Pb Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 2.76 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
• Higher Order QED Calculation of Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Production of mu+ mu- Pairs
• Two-Photon Interactions with Nuclear Breakup in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Cited by in corpus (192)

• Evidence for light-by-light scattering in heavy-ion collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
• Feebly-Interacting Particles:FIPs 2020 Workshop Report
• Searching for axion-like particles with ultra-peripheral heavy-ion collisions
• Evidence for light-by-light scattering and searches for axion-like particles in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$ 5.02 TeV
• Light-by-Light Scattering Constraint on Born-Infeld Theory
• The ALICE experiment: a journey through QCD
• Measurement of $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ Momentum and Angular Distributions from Linearly Polarized Photon Collisions
• Observation of light-by-light scattering in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector
• Mining for Gluon Saturation at Colliders
• Coherent J/psi photoproduction in ultra-peripheral PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV with the CMS experiment
• Photonuclear and Two-photon Interactions at High-Energy Nuclear Colliders
• Low-$p_T$ $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ pair production in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV and U$+$U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 193 GeV at STAR
• Exclusive LHC physics with heavy ions: SuperChic 3
• Coherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction at forward rapidity in ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• Measurement of light-by-light scattering and search for axion-like particles with 2.2 nb${}^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb data with the ATLAS detector
• Initial transverse-momentum broadening of Breit-Wheeler process in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Probing the linear polarization of photons in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions
• Energy dependence of exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction off protons in ultra-peripheral p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• Event Generators for High-Energy Physics Experiments
• Observation of centrality-dependent acoplanarity for muon pairs produced via two-photon scattering in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Lepton Pair Production Through Two Photon Process in Heavy Ion Collisions
• First measurement of the $|\text{t}|$-dependence of coherent $J/\psi$ photonuclear production
• Progress in the Glauber model at collider energies
• Anomalous electromagnetic moments of $\tau$ lepton in $\gamma \gamma \to {\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$ reaction in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC
• A new approach to modelling elastic and inelastic photon-initiated production at the LHC: SuperChic 4
• Coherent $J/\psi$ and ${\psi }^{\prime }$ photoproduction at midrapidity in ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• The Present and Future of QCD
• Tomography of Ultra-relativistic Nuclei with Polarized Photon-gluon Collisions
• Coherent diffractive photoproduction of ${\rho }^0$ mesons on gold nuclei at RHIC
• gamma-UPC: Automated generation of exclusive photon-photon processes in ultraperipheral proton and nuclear collisions with varying form factors
• Acoplanarity of Lepton Pair to Probe the Electromagnetic Property of Quark Matter
• Impact parameter dependence of the azimuthal asymmetry in lepton pair production in heavy ion collisions
• Two-particle azimuthal correlations in photonuclear ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with ATLAS
• Coherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction in hadronic heavy-ion collisions
• Coherent lepton pair production in hadronic heavy ion collisions
• New physics searches with heavy-ion collisions at the LHC
• Measurement of exclusive ${\rho }^0$(770) photoproduction in ultraperipheral pPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$ 5.02 TeV
• Mapping the Electromagnetic Fields of Heavy-Ion Collisions with the Breit-Wheeler Process
• Software and computing for Run 3 of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC
• Exclusive dimuon production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with ATLAS
• Two-photon production of dilepton pairs in peripheral heavy ion collisions
• A generator of forward neutrons for ultra-peripheral collisions: $\textbf{n$\mathbf{_O^O}$n}$
• A Fixed-Target Programme at the LHC: Physics Case and Projected Performances for Heavy-Ion, Hadron, Spin and Astroparticle Studies
• Observation of forward neutron multiplicity dependence of dimuon acoplanarity in ultraperipheral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$ 5.02 TeV
• Exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD
• Observation of excess J/$\psi$ yield at very low transverse momenta in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$ 200 GeV and U+U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$ 193 GeV
• Exclusive vector meson production at an electron-ion collider
• Investigating saturation effects in ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC with the color dipole model
• Mass dependence of vector meson photoproduction off protons and nuclei within the energy-dependent hot-spot model
• Observation of the $\gamma \gamma \to \tau \tau$ process in Pb+Pb collisions and constraints on the $\tau$-lepton anomalous magnetic moment with the ATLAS detector
• Extending the constraint for axion-like particles as resonances at the LHC and laser beam experiments
• Probing small Bjorken-$x$ nuclear gluonic structure via coherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• Exclusive dilepton production in ultraperipheral $PbPb$ collisions at the LHC
• Energy dependence of coherent photonuclear production of J/$\psi$ mesons in ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$=5.02 TeV
• Overview of high-density QCD studies with the CMS experiment at the LHC
• The $\cos 2\varphi$ azimuthal asymmetry in ${\rho }^0$ meson production in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions
• Coherent photoproduction of ${\rho }^0$ vector mesons in ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• Double-slit experiment at fermi scale: coherent photoproduction in heavy-ion collisions
• Study of exclusive photoproduction of charmonium in ultra-peripheral lead-lead collisions
• Dilepton Radiation in Heavy-Ion Collisions at Small Transverse Momentum
• Exploring the double-slit interference with linearly polarized photons
• Momentum Anisotropy of Leptons from Two Photon Processes in Heavy Ion Collisions
• Centrality dependence of dilepton production via $\gamma \gamma$ processes from Wigner distributions of photons in nuclei
• Equivalent photons in proton-proton and ion-ion collisions at the LHC
• Charged-particle nuclear modification factors in XeXe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.44 TeV
• Report on Progress in Physics: Observation of the Breit-Wheeler Process and Vacuum Birefringence in Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Elastic photon-initiated production at the LHC: the role of hadron-hadron interactions
• Photoproduction of charged final states in ultra-peripheral collisions and electroproduction at an electron-ion collider
• Hunting for tetraquarks in ultra-pheripheral heavy ion collisions
• Selected topics in diffraction with protons and nuclei: past, present, and future
• First measurement of coherent ${\rho }^0$ photoproduction in ultra-peripheral Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{{\mathbf{s}}_{\mathbf{NN}}}=5.44$ TeV
• Systematic analysis of the proton mass radius based on photoproduction of vector charmoniums
• Electromagnetic fields in ultra-peripheral relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Lepton pair photoproduction in peripheral relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Accessing chiral-even quark generalised parton distributions in the exclusive photoproduction of a $\gamma {\pi }^{\pm }$ pair with large invariant mass in both fixed-target and collider experiments
• Coherent photo-produced J$/\psi$ and dielectron yields in isobaric collisions
• $J/\psi$ photo-production in Pb-Pb peripheral collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5 TeV
• Investigation of the background in coherent $J/\psi$ production at the EIC
• Study of coherent $J/\psi$ production in lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5TeV$
• Progress and Opportunities in Backward angle (u-channel) Physics
• Collider constraints on axion-like particles
• Discovery of higher order QED effect for the vacuum pair production
• Photon-photon physics at the LHC and laser beam experiments, present and future
• Ultra-peripheral collisions and hadronic structure
• Energy Dependence of the Breit-Wheeler process in Heavy-Ion Collisions and its Application to Nuclear Charge Radius Measurements
• Constraints on the initial state of PbPb collisions via measurements of Z boson yields and azimuthal anisotropy at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$ 5.02 TeV
• Reaction plane alignment with linearly polarized photon in heavy-ion collisions
• Prospects for quarkonium studies at the high-luminosity LHC
• Azimuthal asymmetries of muon pair production in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions
• Exciting Ions: a Systematic Treatment of Ultraperipheral Heavy Ion Collisions with Nuclear Breakup
• Exclusive dielectron production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\text{NN}}}}=5.02$ TeV with ATLAS
• Exclusive photoproduction of excited quarkonia in ultraperipheral collisions
• LHC limits on axion-like particles from heavy-ion collisions
• Observation of strong nuclear suppression in exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction in Au$+$Au ultra-peripheral collisions at RHIC
• Photoproduction of pentaquarks states at the LHC
• Studying Coulomb correction at EIC and EicC
• Measurement of photonuclear jet production in ultra-peripheral Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Photoproduction of heavy vector mesons in ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions
• Pseudorapidity distributions of charged hadrons in xenon-xenon collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$ 5.44 TeV
• Higgs boson production in photon-photon interactions with proton, light-ion, and heavy-ion beams at current and future colliders
• Photoproduction of low-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ J/$\psi$ from peripheral to central Pb$-$Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV
• Estimation of ${\rm Y}$(1S) production in ep process near threshold
• Photoproduction of $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ in peripheral isobar collisions
• Challenges to the Good-Walker paradigm in coherent and incoherent photoproduction
• Exclusive and dissociative J/$\psi$ photoproduction, and exclusive dimuon production, in p$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=8.16$ TeV
• Search for magnetic monopole pair production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\text{NN}}}}=5.36$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
• First measurement of the $|t|$-dependence of incoherent J/$\psi$ photonuclear production
• Single-Transverse-Spin Asymmetries in Exclusive Photo-production of J/psi in Ultra-Peripheral Collisions in the Fixed-Target Mode at the LHC and in the Collider Mode at RHIC
• Neutron emission in ultraperipheral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• EasyScan_HEP: a tool for connecting programs to scan the parameter space of physics models
• Photoproduction of relativistic QED bound states in hadronic collisions
• Production of hidden-charm and hidden-bottom pentaquark states in electron-proton collisions
• Comment on "${\eta }_c$ production in photon-induced interactions at the LHC"
• Exclusive and diffractive $\gamma \gamma$ production in $PbPb$ collisions at the LHC, HE -- LHC and FCC
• Exclusive $J/\psi$, $\psi (2s)$, and $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ pair production in Au$+$Au ultra-peripheral collisions at RHIC
• Exclusive diffractive resonance production in proton-proton collisions at high energies
• Dimuon and ditau production in photon-photon collisions at next-to-leading order in QED
• Large single transverse spin asymmetry for forward neutrons in ultraperipheral polarized proton-nucleus collisions in explanation of measurements at RHIC-PHENIX
• Probing hidden-bottom pentaquarks in fixed-target collisions at the LHC
• Azimuthal correlations within exclusive dijets with large momentum transfer in photon-lead collisions
• Electroweak, QCD and flavour physics studies with ATLAS data from Run 2 of the LHC
• Ultraperipheral nuclear interactions
• Evidence for light-by-light scattering in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• Measurement of light-by-light scattering and the Breit-Wheeler process, and search for axion-like particles in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• Photoproduction of K${}^{+}$K${}^{-}$ pairs in ultra-peripheral collisions
• Coherent and incoherent $J/\Psi$ photoproduction in $PbPb$ collisions at the LHC, HE -- LHC and FCC
• Hard diffractive ${\eta }_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{b}}$ hadroproduction at the LHC
• Photoproduction of light vector mesons in Xe-Xe ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC and the nuclear density of Xe-129
• Exclusive vector meson photoproduction in fixed - target collisions at the LHC
• Dielectron production at midrapidity at low transverse momentum in peripheral and semi-peripheral Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• Electron-positron, parton-parton and photon-photon production of $\tau$-lepton pairs: anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments spin effects
• Production of vector mesons in pentaquark states resonance channel in $p$-$A$ ultraperipheral collisions
• Coherent and incoherent Upsilon production in ultraperipheral collisions at the Large Hadron Collider
• Backward-Angle ($u$-channel) Production at an Electron-Ion Collider
• Probing the hidden-bottom pentaquark resonances in photonuclear bottomonium production near threshold: differential observables
• Near threshold heavy vector meson photoproduction at LHC and EicC
• Vector meson photoproduction in UPCs with FoCal
• Coherent and incoherent production of vector mesons in ultraperipheral collisions of Xenon-ions within the QCD parton saturation approach
• Incoherent $\rho$ meson photoproduction in ultraperipheral nuclear collisions at the LHC
• Automated next-to-leading order QCD and electroweak predictions of photon-photon processes in ultraperipheral collisions
• Probing gluon fluctuations in nuclei with the first energy-dependent measurement of incoherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions
• Transverse momentum dependent forward neutron single spin asymmetries in transversely polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV
• Azimuthal decorrelation for photon induced dijet production in ultra-peripheral collisions of heavy ions
• Observation of suppressed charged-particle production in ultrarelativistic oxygen-oxygen collisions
• Photoproductions of dileptons, photons, and light vector mesons in p-p, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions at Large Hadron Collider energies
• The effect of initial nuclear deformation on dielectron photoproduction in hadronic heavy-ion collisions
• Measurement of the impact-parameter dependent azimuthal anisotropy in coherent ${\rho }^0$ photoproduction in Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• Electromagnetic interaction of low transverse momentum electrons and positrons with heavy nuclei in ultra-peripheral ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Probing Quantum Phenomena through Photoproduction in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Probing the photonic content of the proton using photon-induced dilepton production in $p+\text{Pb}$ collisions at the LHC
• Pseudorapidity distributions of charged hadrons in lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.36 TeV
• Transverse single spin asymmetries of forward neutrons in $p$$+$$p$, $p$$+$Al, and $p$$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV as a function of transverse and longitudinal momenta
• Experimental Review of the Quarkonium Physics at the LHC
• Photoproduction of lepton pair in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Production of true para-muonium in linearly polarized photon fusions
• Investigating exclusive ${\rho }^0$ photoproduction within the Regge phenomenology approach
• Charged-hadron and identified-hadron ($K_{\mathrm{S}}^0$, $\Lambda$, ${\Xi }^{-}$) yield measurements in photo-nuclear Pb+Pb and $p$+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with ATLAS
• Simultaneous Production of Lepton Pairs at Ultra-peripheral Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
• Exclusive $Z^0$ production in $ep$ and $eA$ collisions at high energies
• Nuclear deformation effects in photoproduction of $\rho$ mesons in ultraperipheral isobaric collisions
• Coherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• Measurement of coherent exclusive $J/\psi \to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5.36$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Dipion photoproduction and the $Q^2$ evolution of the shape of the gold nucleus
• Simulations of photo-nuclear dijets with Pythia 8 and their sensitivity to nuclear PDFs
• Dilepton photoproduction measures the fluctuations of initial electromagnetic fields in nuclear collisions
• Production of $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ in proton-lead collision: photon-photon fusion
• Production of the bottomonium-like states $Z_b$ states at $e$-$h$ and ultraperipheral $h$-$h$ collisions
• Exclusive four pion photoproduction in ultraperipheral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• Lepton pair production in ultra-peripheral collisions
• Results on heavy ion physics at LHCb
• Absorption of $\psi (2S)$ mesons in nuclei
• Observation of coherent $\varphi$(1020) meson photoproduction in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}$ = 5.36 TeV
• Opportunities for Imaging Light Nuclei with a Second Interaction Region at the Electron-Ion Collider
• libepa -- a C++/Python library for calculations of cross sections of ultraperipheral collisions
• First polarisation measurement of coherently photoproduced J/$\psi$ in ultra-peripheral Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• Light vector meson photoproduction in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions at the LHC within the Reggeometric Pomeron approach
• Ultra-peripheral-collision studies in the fixed-target mode with the proton and lead LHC beams
• The reggeometric pomeron and exclusive production of $J/\psi$ and $\psi (2S)$ in ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC
• Upcgen: a Monte Carlo simulation program for dilepton pair production in ultra-peripheral collisions of heavy ions
• Coherent photoproduction of ${\rho }^0,\omega$ and excited vector mesons in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions
• Review of results on forward physics and diffraction by CMS
• Automated event generation for S-wave quarkonium and leptonium production in NRQCD and NRQED
• Elastic and inelastic $J/\psi$ photoproduction in $p$-$p$ collisions at LHC energies: the feature of Weizsäcker-Williams approximation
• Rescattering effects on spin-interference for ${\rho }^0$ photoproduction in heavy-ion collisions
• Ultraperipheral vs ordinary nuclear interactions
• System-size dependence of charged-particle suppression in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions
• Probing the gluonic structure of the deuteron with $J/\psi$ photoproduction in d+Au ultra-peripheral collisions
• GRANIITTI: A Monte Carlo Event Generator for High Energy Diffraction
• Azimuthal asymmetries in lepton and heavy-quark pair production in UPCs
• Absorption of 1$P$-wave heavy charmonium ${\chi }_{c1}(1P)$ in nuclei
• Analysis of $J/\psi$ and $\psi (2S)$ Charmonium Production in Ultraperipheral Lead-Lead and Proton-Lead Collisions at LHC Energies
• Factorization of photon induced processes in ultra-peripheral heavy ion collisions