https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-020-00231-8
Review
Photon induced processes: from ultraperipheral to semicentral heavy ion collisions
Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Radzikowskiego 152, 31-342, Kraków, Poland
* e-mail: Wolfgang.Schafer@ifj.edu.pl
Received:
31
May
2020
Accepted:
23
August
2020
Published online:
17
September
2020
We present an overview of processes induced by the coherent Weizsäcker-Williams (WW) photon cloud in heavy ion collisions. Due to the rather broad energy spectrum of photons a large variety of physics topics can be addressed. At the low-energy side, there are the electromagnetic dissociation processes. We discuss the few-neutron production via giant dipole resonance excitation. A typical high energy photonuclear process that has attracted much attention is the diffractive photoproduction of vector mesons. We review the color dipole approach to coherent and incoherent diffractive photoproduction of 
mesons. Finally we turn to peripheral and semicentral collisions and discuss the role of WW photons in the production of very low-
dileptons.
© The Author(s), 2020
