Large Coulomb corrections to the $e^+e^-$ pair production at relativistic heavy ion colliders

Abstract

We consider the Coulomb correction (CC) to the $e^+e^-$ pair production related to multiphoton exchange of the produced $e^{\pm}$ with nuclei. The contribution of CC to the energy distribution of $e^+$ and $e^-$ as well as to the total pair production cross section are calculated with an accuracy of the order of 1%. The found correction to the total Born cross section is negative and equal to -25% at the RHIC for Au--Au and -14% at the LHC for Pb--Pb collisions.