Low mass lepton pair production and pion dynamics in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The production of lepton pairs with low invariant mass as probes for the pion dynamics in relativistic nuclear collisions is discussed in some detail. We emphasize the implications of a possible large positive pion chemical potential for the production rate of lepton pairs. We find a strong enhancement in the low invariant mass region,\(2m_\pi \leqslant M_{\mu ^ + \mu ^ - } \leqslant 600\,MeV\), for lepton pairs which are produced via the annihilation of pions in the hot and dense collision zone. Various sources of background which could mask this enhancement are discussed in some detail. We present and compare calculations for dilepton mass spectra based on different nuclear collision scenarios. It is found that the di-muon mass spectrum can serve as a useful probe to distinguish between these different scenarios.