Pair production and electron capture in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

Results are presented for simulations of electron-positron pair production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions leading to electron capture and positron ejection. We apply a two-center relativistic continuum distorted-wave model to represent the electron/positron dynamics during the collision process. The results are compared with experimental cross-section data for ${\rm La}^{57+}$ and ${\rm Au}^{79+}$ impact on Gold, Silver and Copper targets. The theory is in very good agreement with experiment, verifying the result that the process increases in importance with both collision energy and target atomic number, and improves upon previous simulations of this process.