Spontaneous e +e − pair creation in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

We demonstrate that vibrational perturbations of supercritical “quasimolecules” which may occur in collisions of heavy ions can, within the context of first-order perturbation,theory, result in the production of coincident narrow e +e − peaks, in place of and with a larger yield than that predicted for spontaneous positron emission from static supercritical systems. Certain features of this phenomenon coincide with those of the e +e − peaks observed by the EPOS collaboration although some important aspects of the observations cannot be reproduced within our approximation. A detailed attempt to reconcile this theoretical model with the EPOS experiment must go beyond perturbation theory.