Bremsstrahlung as a probe of baryon stopping in heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

In collisions between heavy ions at ultra-relativistic energies the participating protons lose energy, which is converted into new particles. As the protons slow down, they emit bremsstrahlung radiation. The yield and angular distribution of the emitted radiation are sensitive probes of how much energy the incoming protons have lost. In this paper, the spectrum of bremsstrahlung radiation is calculated for different stopping scenarios, and the results are compared with the expected yield of photons from hadronic interactions.