Nuclear resonance fluorescence of $$^{208}$$Pb in heavy-ion colliders

Abstract

In ultraperipheral collisions (UPC) of nuclei the impact of Lorentz-contracted electromagnetic fields of collision partners leads to their excitations. In case of heavy nuclei the emission of neutrons is a main deexcitation channel and forward neutrons emitted in UPC were detected at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by means of Zero Degree Calorimeters. However, the excitation of low-lying discrete nuclear states is also possible in UPC below the neutron separation energy. In this work by means of the Weizsacker-Williams method the data on nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) induced by real photons in 208 Pb are used to model the excitations of discrete levels in colliding nuclei. Due to Lorentz boosts one can expect that deexcitation photons with energies up to 40 GeV and 300 GeV are emitted in very forward direction, respectively, at the LHC and at the Future Circular Collider (FCC-hh). Energy, rapidity and angular distributions of such photons are calculated in the laboratory system, which can be used for monitoring of collider luminosity or triggering particle production in UPC.