Measurement of e+e- Momentum and Angular Distributions from Linearly Polarized Photon Collisions

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.052302

Measurement of e+e- Momentum and Angular Distributions from Linearly Polarized Photon Collisions

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Abstract

The Breit-Wheeler process which produces matter and antimatter from photon collisions is experimentally investigated through the observation of 6085 exclusive electron-positron pairs in ultraperipheral Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The measurements reveal a large fourth-order angular modulation of cos4Δφ=(16.8±2.5)% and smooth invariant mass distribution absent of vector mesons (φ, ω, and ρ) at the experimental limit of ≤0.2% of the observed yields.

Original language	English
Article number	052302
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	127
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.052302
State	Published - Jul 30 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank the RHIC Operations Group and RCF at BNL, the NERSC Center at LBNL, and the Open Science Grid consortium for providing resources and support. This work was supported in part by the Office of Nuclear Physics within the U.S. DOE Office of Science, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Science, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Ministry of Education, the National Research Foundation of Korea, Czech Science Foundation and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office, New National Excellency Programme of the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, the National Science Centre of Poland, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, RosAtom of Russia and German Bundesministerium fur Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung, and Technologie (BMBF) and the Helmholtz Association.

Publisher Copyright:
©=38.1±0.9 MeV and displays a significant centrality dependence. These features are consistent with QED calculations for the collision of linearly polarized photons quantized from the extremely strong electromagnetic fields generated by the highly charged Au nuclei at ultrarelativistic speed. The experimental results have implications for vacuum birefringence and for mapping the magnetic field which is important for emergent QCD phenomena.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (all)

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10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.052302

Cite this

@article{9bcadaa2f6bb400ca90b70a34c087f08,

title = "Measurement of e+e- Momentum and Angular Distributions from Linearly Polarized Photon Collisions",

abstract = "The Breit-Wheeler process which produces matter and antimatter from photon collisions is experimentally investigated through the observation of 6085 exclusive electron-positron pairs in ultraperipheral Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The measurements reveal a large fourth-order angular modulation of cos4Δφ=(16.8±2.5)% and smooth invariant mass distribution absent of vector mesons (φ, ω, and ρ) at the experimental limit of ≤0.2% of the observed yields.",

author = "J. Adam and L. Adamczyk and Adams, {J. R.} and Adkins, {J. K.} and G. Agakishiev and Aggarwal, {M. M.} and Z. Ahammed and I. Alekseev and Anderson, {D. M.} and A. Aparin and Aschenauer, {E. C.} and Ashraf, {M. U.} and Atetalla, {F. G.} and A. Attri and Averichev, {G. S.} and V. Bairathi and K. Barish and A. Behera and R. Bellwied and A. Bhasin and J. Bielcik and J. Bielcikova and Bland, {L. C.} and Bordyuzhin, {I. G.} and Brandenburg, {J. D.} and Brandin, {A. V.} and J. Butterworth and H. Caines and {Calder{\'o}n De La Barca S{\'a}nchez}, M. and D. Cebra and I. Chakaberia and P. Chaloupka and Chan, {B. K.} and Chang, {F. H.} and Z. Chang and N. Chankova-Bunzarova and A. Chatterjee and D. Chen and Chen, {J. H.} and X. Chen and Z. Chen and J. Cheng and M. Cherney and M. Chevalier and S. Choudhury and W. Christie and Crawford, {H. J.} and M. Csan{\'a}d and M. Daugherity and R. Fatemi",

note = "Funding Information: We thank the RHIC Operations Group and RCF at BNL, the NERSC Center at LBNL, and the Open Science Grid consortium for providing resources and support. This work was supported in part by the Office of Nuclear Physics within the U.S. DOE Office of Science, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Science, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Ministry of Education, the National Research Foundation of Korea, Czech Science Foundation and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office, New National Excellency Programme of the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, the National Science Centre of Poland, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, RosAtom of Russia and German Bundesministerium fur Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung, and Technologie (BMBF) and the Helmholtz Association. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright}=38.1±0.9 MeV and displays a significant centrality dependence. These features are consistent with QED calculations for the collision of linearly polarized photons quantized from the extremely strong electromagnetic fields generated by the highly charged Au nuclei at ultrarelativistic speed. The experimental results have implications for vacuum birefringence and for mapping the magnetic field which is important for emergent QCD phenomena.",

year = "2021",

month = jul,

day = "30",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.052302",

language = "English",

volume = "127",

number = "5",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Measurement of e+e- Momentum and Angular Distributions from Linearly Polarized Photon Collisions

AU - Adam, J.

AU - Adamczyk, L.

AU - Adams, J. R.

AU - Adkins, J. K.

AU - Agakishiev, G.

AU - Aggarwal, M. M.

AU - Ahammed, Z.

AU - Alekseev, I.

AU - Anderson, D. M.

AU - Aparin, A.

AU - Aschenauer, E. C.

AU - Ashraf, M. U.

AU - Atetalla, F. G.

AU - Attri, A.

AU - Averichev, G. S.

AU - Bairathi, V.

AU - Barish, K.

AU - Behera, A.

AU - Bellwied, R.

AU - Bhasin, A.

AU - Bielcik, J.

AU - Bielcikova, J.

AU - Bland, L. C.

AU - Bordyuzhin, I. G.

AU - Brandenburg, J. D.

AU - Brandin, A. V.

AU - Butterworth, J.

AU - Caines, H.

AU - Calderón De La Barca Sánchez, M.

AU - Cebra, D.

AU - Chakaberia, I.

AU - Chaloupka, P.

AU - Chan, B. K.

AU - Chang, F. H.

AU - Chang, Z.

AU - Chankova-Bunzarova, N.

AU - Chatterjee, A.

AU - Chen, D.

AU - Chen, J. H.

AU - Chen, X.

AU - Chen, Z.

AU - Cheng, J.

AU - Cherney, M.

AU - Chevalier, M.

AU - Choudhury, S.

AU - Christie, W.

AU - Crawford, H. J.

AU - Csanád, M.

AU - Daugherity, M.

AU - Fatemi, R.

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the RHIC Operations Group and RCF at BNL, the NERSC Center at LBNL, and the Open Science Grid consortium for providing resources and support. This work was supported in part by the Office of Nuclear Physics within the U.S. DOE Office of Science, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Science, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Ministry of Education, the National Research Foundation of Korea, Czech Science Foundation and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office, New National Excellency Programme of the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, the National Science Centre of Poland, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, RosAtom of Russia and German Bundesministerium fur Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung, and Technologie (BMBF) and the Helmholtz Association. Publisher Copyright: ©=38.1±0.9 MeV and displays a significant centrality dependence. These features are consistent with QED calculations for the collision of linearly polarized photons quantized from the extremely strong electromagnetic fields generated by the highly charged Au nuclei at ultrarelativistic speed. The experimental results have implications for vacuum birefringence and for mapping the magnetic field which is important for emergent QCD phenomena.

PY - 2021/7/30

Y1 - 2021/7/30

N2 - The Breit-Wheeler process which produces matter and antimatter from photon collisions is experimentally investigated through the observation of 6085 exclusive electron-positron pairs in ultraperipheral Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The measurements reveal a large fourth-order angular modulation of cos4Δφ=(16.8±2.5)% and smooth invariant mass distribution absent of vector mesons (φ, ω, and ρ) at the experimental limit of ≤0.2% of the observed yields.

AB - The Breit-Wheeler process which produces matter and antimatter from photon collisions is experimentally investigated through the observation of 6085 exclusive electron-positron pairs in ultraperipheral Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The measurements reveal a large fourth-order angular modulation of cos4Δφ=(16.8±2.5)% and smooth invariant mass distribution absent of vector mesons (φ, ω, and ρ) at the experimental limit of ≤0.2% of the observed yields.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112679069&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85112679069&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.052302

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.052302

M3 - Article

C2 - 34397228

AN - SCOPUS:85112679069

SN - 0031-9007

VL - 127

JO - Physical Review Letters

JF - Physical Review Letters

IS - 5

M1 - 052302

ER -

Measurement of e+e- Momentum and Angular Distributions from Linearly Polarized Photon Collisions

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