Impact-parameter dependence of the electromagnetic particle production in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

The cross section for the electromagentic production of different particles in heavy-ion collision is derived within the external field approach. The underlying assumption leading to the equivalent photon method is that the transverse components of the virtual photon momenta are small compared to their longitudinal components. Introducing polarized photon-fusion cross sections, it is possible to generalize the equivalent photon method to describe the impact- parameter dependence of the particle production. The impact- parameter dependent production of scalar and pseudoscalar (spin 0) bosons, charged (spin 0) boson pairs and fermion pairs is discussed in general. (orig.)