Large Coulomb corrections to the e+e− pair production at relativistic heavy ion colliders

Abstract We consider the Coulomb correction (CC) to the e + e − pair production related to multiphoton exchange of the produced e ± with nuclei. The contribution of CC to the energy distribution of e + and e − as well as to the total pair production cross section is calculated with an accuracy of the order of 1%. The found correction to the total Born cross section is negative and equals −25% at the RHIC for Au-Au and −14% at the LHC for Pb–Pb collisions.