Holographic correspondence applied to vector meson emission from a heavy accelerated nucleus

Abstract

We consider a classical source, moving on the 4D boundary of a 5D anti-de Sitter space, that is coupled to quantum fields residing in the bulk. Bremsstrahlung-like radiation of the corresponding quanta is shown to occur and the S matrix is derived assuming that the source is sufficiently massive so that recoil effects are negligible. As an illustrative example, using the anti-de Sitter hard-wall model, we consider vector mesons coupled to a heavy nucleus that is moved around at high speed in an accelerator ring. The meson radiation rate is found to be finite but small. Much higher accelerations, such as when a pair of heavy ions suffer an ultra peripheral collision, cause substantial emission of various excited vector mesons. Predictions are made for the spectrum of this radiation. A comparison is made against existing photon-pomeron fusion calculations for the transverse momentum spectra of rho mesons. These have the same overall shape as the recently measured transverse momentum distributions at RHIC.