Ionization and pair creation in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

Ionization, pair creation, and electron excitations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions are investigated in the framework of the coupled-channel formalism. Collisions between heavy projectiles and ${\mathrm{Pb}}^{82+}$ are considered for various bombarding energies in the region E=500 up to 2000 MeV/u. Useful symmetry relations for the matrix elements are derived and the influence of gauge transformations onto the coupled-channel equations is explored.