Probing the linear polarization of photons in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions

Abstract

We propose to measure the linear polarization of the external electromagnetic fields of a relativistic heavy ion through azimuthal asymmetries in dilepton production in ultraperipheral collisions. The asymmetries estimated with the equivalent photon approximation are shown to be sizable.

Comments: The version accepted by the journal, 7 pages, 4 figures