Bound-free electron-positron pair production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We study the bound-free electron-positron pair production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions to different bound states in a full plane-wave Born approximation calculation. Exact Dirac wave functions are used for both the bound electron and the free positron in the final states. Results for the relativistic heavy-ion collider as well as the forthcoming large hadron collider are given. This process is one of the dominant beam loss processes and can become critical for the operation with heavy ions. A simple parametrization is given as well. We compare our results with calculations of other groups.