The creation of lepton pairs ($e^+e^-$ and $μ^+μ^-$) via multiphoton absorption in collisions of ultrarelativistic ion beams with ultrashort high-frequency laser pulses is considered. Both the free and the bound-free production channels are addressed, where in the latter case the negatively charged lepton is created in a bound atomic state. It is shown that these nonlinear QED processes are observable when a table-top source of intense xuv or x-ray laser radiation is operated in conjunction with the LHC. We discuss the relative effectiveness of protons versus Pb ions and specify for each pair production channel the most suitable collision system.
The bremsstrahlung cross section of electron in the atomic electric field is re-derived using the time ordered perturbative theory. The results are compared with the Bethe-Heitler formula. We indicate that both the TOPT-description and a soft version for the bremsstrahlung process predict a strong screening parameter-dependent cross section, which is missed by previous bremsstrahlung theory.
We calculate the Bethe-Heitler cross section for the production of lepton pairs in the field of a longitudinally polarized nucleon, taking into account the lepton masses and the target mass. This process is a dominant background to the detection of open charm from semi-leptonic decay modes, which is a potential probe of the polarized gluon distribution in the nucleon.
We derived analytic formulae for the polarization single--spin asymmetries (SSA) in the Bethe--Heitler process $e^- + p \to e^- + γ+ p$. The asymmetries arise due to one-loop QED radiative corrections to the leptonic part of the interaction and present a systematic correction for the studies of virtual Compton Scattering on a proton through interference with the Bethe-Heitler amplitude. Considered are SSA with either longitudinally polarized electron beam or a polarized proton target. The computed effect appears to be small, not exceeding 0.1 per cent for kinematics of current virtual Compton …
We present prospects and requirements for the study at HERA of hard photon processes which generate high $p_T$ photons in the final state, and processes which generate Drell-Yan lepton pairs.
The cross-section for the process $γ+ A \to μ^+ + μ^- + X$ is studied where the photon energy is of the order of several hundreds of GeV and where one of the leptons is scattered to large angles. This is of practical importance for muon shielding calculations at future linear electron colliders. In addition to the photon pole contribution which was previously considered especially by Y.S.Tsai, we identify another component due to the muon pole (equivalent photon and equivalent muon approximation). This is discussed following the usual Bethe-Heitler formula. Then we give practically useful form…
We study the electromagnetic Bethe-Heitler type contribution to neutrino-induced deeply virtual meson production (\nuDVMP). Such O(α_{em})-corrections decrease with Q^{2} in the Bjorken regime less steeply than the standard \nuDVMP handbag contribution. Therefore, they are relatively enhanced at high Q^{2}. The Bethe-Heitler terms give rise to an angular correlation between the lepton and hadron scattering planes with harmonics sensitive to the real and imaginary parts of the DVMP amplitude. These corrections constitute a few percent effect in the kinematics of the forthcoming Minerva experime…
I describe a five-dimensional, polarised, Bethe-Heitler event generator of $γ$-ray conversions to $μ^+μ^-$, based on a generator for conversion to $e^+e^-$ developed in the past. Verifications are performed from close-to-threshold to high energies.
We develop the full finite lepton mass formalism for the production of real photons via the Bethe-Heitler reaction of unpolarized leptons off unpolarized nucleons. Genuine lepton mass effects are described, in particular their dependence upon the lepton mass and the initial beam energy, as well as their sensitivity to the nucleon isospin. In the minimum momentum transfer region, these effects dominate the muon induced proton cross section and become significant for electron scattering at small $x_B$.
The Bethe-Heitler formula describes bremsstrahlung and it's a typical and important example in quantum electromagnetic dynamics (QED). This formula is widely applied in many branches of physics and astrophysics. We find that the integrated bremsstrahlung cross section at the static approximation and high energy limit has an unexpected big increment, which is missed by previous bremsstrahlung theory. This anomalous effect also exists in electron-positron pair creation. We derive the relating formulas and point out that electromagnetic cascades at the top of atmosphere can test this effect.
Nonlinear Bethe-Heitler process in a bichromatic laser field is investigated using strong-field QED formalism. Symmetry properties of angular distributions of created $e^-e^+$ pairs are analyzed. These properties are showed to be governed by a behavior of the vector potential characterizing the laser field, rather than by the respective electric field component.
The nonperturbative regime of electron-positron pair creation by a relativistic proton beam colliding with a highly intense bichromatic laser field is studied. The laser wave is composed of a strong low-frequency and a weak high-frequency mode, with mutually orthogonal polarization vectors. We show that the presence of the high-frequency field component can strongly enhance the pair-creation rate. Besides, a characteristic influence of the high-frequency mode on the angular and energy distributions of the created particles is demonstrated, both in the nuclear rest frame and the laboratory fram…
We study the creation of electron-positron pairs in the superposition of a nuclear Coulomb field and a two-color laser field of high intensity. Our focus lies on quantum interference effects, which may arise if the two laser frequencies are commensurable. We show that the interference manifests in the angular distributions of the created particles, which are discussed in the nuclear rest frame and the laboratory frame. Additionally, we demonstrate that the total pair-production rates can be affected by interference and identify the relative phase between the two laser modes, which optimizes th…
We investigate electron-positron pair creation in the interaction of a nuclear Coulomb field and a highly intense two-mode laser field. For bichromatic laser fields, we examine the differences arising for commensurable and incommensurable frequencies in a continuous variation of the laser frequency ratio and the quantum interference effects, which may occur in the commensurable case. We show that the interference manifests in the angular distributions and the total pair-production rates of the created particles. Additionally, by varying the amplitudes of the two modes we study pair creation in…
Three-qubit entanglement in the Bethe-Heitler process
Northwestern University（西北大学）；Stony Brook University（纽约州立大学石溪分校）；Brookhaven National Laboratory（布鲁克海文国家实验室）；RIKEN BNL Research Center（理化学研究所布鲁克海文研究中心）；Technische Universität München（慕尼黑工业大学）
We describe a new version of the 5D, exact, polarised, Bethe-Heitler event generator of $γ$-ray conversions to $e^+e^-$, developed in the context of the HARPO project, that is able to simulate successive events with different photon energies and on different atomic targets without any substantial CPU overhead. The strong correlation between kinematic variables in the divergence of the five-dimensional differential cross section are mitigated by performing each step of the conversion in the appropriate Lorentz frame. We extend the verification range down to 1 keV above threshold and up to 1 EeV…
We report on the calculation of first-order QED corrections for the $γp\rightarrow l^+l^-p^{\prime}$ process. An upcoming experiment at MAMI (Mainz) aims to compare the cross sections of muon- and electron-pair production in this reaction to test lepton universality. Precise knowledge of the electromagnetic radiative corrections is needed for these measurements. As a first step, we present the leading QED radiative corrections in the soft-photon approximation when accounting for the finite lepton mass. For the kinematics at MAMI, we find corrections of the percent level for muons, and of order…
The ratio of di-lepton production cross sections on a proton, using the $γp\rightarrow l^+ l^- p$ process, above and below di-muon production threshold allows to extract the effective lepton-proton interaction, which is required to be identical for electrons and muons if lepton universality is exact. To test for a scenario of broken universality at the percent level, of the size which could explain the different proton charge radii extracted from electron scattering and from muonic hydrogen spectroscopy, we evaluate all one-loop QED corrections to this process, including the full lepton mass d…
Comparative study of nonperturbative electron-positron pair production by intense laser fields colliding with either bremsstrahlung $γ$-rays or relativistic ions
We study the exclusive photoproduction of a lepton pair off the proton with the aim of studying the proton quark structure via the Generalized Parton Distributions (GPD) formalism. After deriving the amplitudes of the processes contributing to the $γP\to P' e^+e^-$, the Timelike Compton Scattering and the Bethe-Heitler process, we calculate all unpolarized, single- and double- beam-target spin observables in the valence region in terms of GPDs.
The study of exclusive processes in photon - induced interactions allow us to probe the generalized parton distributions (GPDs), which provide information about the 3 dimensional description of the quark and gluon content of hadrons. In this paper we investigate the timelike Compton scattering (TCS) in ultraperipheral $pPb$ collisions at the LHC. Such process is characterized by the exclusive dilepton production through the subprocess $γp \rightarrow γ^*p \rightarrow l^+ l^- p$, with the real photon in the initial state being emitted by the nucleus. Assuming a given model for the GPDs, the TCS…
Most calculations of air shower development have been based on the Bethe-Heitler cross sections for bremsstrahlung and pair production. However, for energetic enough particles, a number of different external factors can reduce these cross sections drastically, slowing shower development and lengthening the showers. Four mechanisms that can suppress bremsstrahlung and pair production cross sections are discussed, and their effect on extremely high energy air showers considered. Besides lengthening the showers, these mechanisms greatly increase the importance of fluctuations in shower developmen…
We describe a new way to access the chiral odd transversity parton distribution in the proton through the photoproduction of lepton pairs on transversely polarized target. The basic ingredient is the interference of the Bethe Heitler or Drell-Yan amplitudes with the amplitude of a process, where the photon couples to quarks through its twist-2 chiral-odd distribution amplitude. This approach permits to scan experimentally the shape of the transversity distribution in a nucleon as well as the photon distribution amplitude.
We describe a new way to access the chiral odd transversity parton distribution in the proton through the photoproduction of lepton pairs. The basic ingredient is the interference of the usual Bethe Heitler or Drell-Yan amplitudes with the amplitude of a process, where the photon couples to quarks through its chiral-odd distribution amplitude, which is normalized to the magnetic susceptibility of the QCD vacuum. A promising phenomenology of single and double spin observables emerges from the unusual features of this amplitude.
We investigate the potentialities offered by the study of lepton-pair production in ultraperipheral collisions at a fixed-target experiment using the proton and ion LHC beams. In these collisions, exclusive or semi-exclusive lepton-pair production can be used as luminosity monitor as well as a check of the equivalent-photon approximation, via the measurement of the Bethe-Heitler cross section. It can also serve as a probe of the inner hadron structure via the measurement of the lepton-pair azimuthal asymmetry which is sensitive to the timelike virtual Compton scattering. We also briefly discus…
Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)（坎皮纳斯州立大学格列布·瓦塔金物理研究所）；Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Federal University of Pelotas（佩洛塔斯联邦大学物理与数学研究所）
We present results for inclusive $π^0$ production in proton-proton and in Au-Au at RHIC energy $\sqrt s=200$ GeV. We use next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculation and we include nuclear effects such as parton energy loss and nuclear shadowing. We consider the ratio of $π^0$ distribution in Au-Au and p-p collisions for $p_T > 3$ GeV for three cases of parton energy loss: 1) constant parton energy loss per parton scattering, $ε^a_n=const$, 2) Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal energy-dependent energy loss, $ε^a_n \sim \sqrt E^a_n$ and 3) Bethe-Heitler energy-dependent energy loss, $ε^a_n \sim E^…
Very recently, for the first time, the two channels of nuclear deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS), the coherent and incoherent ones, have been separated by the CLAS collaboration at JLab, using a $^4$He target. The incoherent channel, which can provide a tomographic view of the bound proton and shed light on its elusive parton structure, is thoroughly analyzed here in Impulse Approximation (IA). A convolution formula for the cross sections in terms of those for the bound proton is derived. Novel scattering amplitudes for a bound moving nucleon have been obtained and used. A state-of-the-…
We study the lepton pair production in the photodisintegration of the deuteron process. The complete seven-fold differential cross section is calculated via the Bethe-Heitler mechanism with final state interactions taken into account. The deuteron bound state is described by a relativistic covariant deuteron-nucleon vertex. With numerical results, we find that the differential cross section has strong dependence on the lepton azimuthal angle in the small polar angle region and sharp peaks appear in the dependence on the invariant mass of the produced lepton pair or the two nucleons in the fina…
We analyze the suppression of particle production at large transverse momenta in ($0-5%$ most) central collisions of gold nuclei at $\sqrt{s_\textrm{NN}}=$ 200 GeV and lead nuclei at $\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}=$ 2.76 TeV. Full next-to-leading order radiative corrections at ${\cal{O}}(α_s^3)$, and nuclear effects like shadowing and parton energy loss are included. The parton energy loss is implemented in a simple multiple scattering model, where the partons lose an energy $ε=λ\times dE/dx$ per collision, where $λ$ is their mean free path. We take $ε=κE$ for a treatment which is suggestive of the B…
