External electron pair production in high-energy collisions

Abstract

External electron pair production is studied in the interaction of high-energy heavy ions with nuclear emulsions. The possibility of the production of neutral bosons is examined at the two energies 3.6A GeV and 200A GeV. The data seem to suggest the production and subsequent decay of short-lived neutral bosons with lifetimes of the order of 10−16–10−15s and with masses consistent with the theoretically predicted resonances.