Gamma-radiation as a Signature of Ultra Peripheral Ion Collisions at LHC energies

Abstract

We study the peripheral ion collisions at LHC energies in which a nucleus is excited to the discrete state and then emits $\gamma$-rays. Large nuclear Lorenz factor allows to observe the high energy photons up to a few ten GeV and in the region of angles of a few hundred micro-radians around the beam direction. These photons can be used for tagging the events with particle production in the central rapidity region in the ultra-peripheral collisions. For that it is necessary to have an electromagnetic detector in front of the zero degree calorimeter in the LHC experiments.