Photon-photon luminosities in relativistic heavy ion collisions at LHC energies

Effective γ−γ luminosities are calculated for various realistic hadron collider scenarios. The main characteristics of photon-photon processes at relativistic heavy-ion colliders are established and compared to the corresponding γ−γ-luminosities ate+-e− — and future photon linear colliders (PLC). Higher order corrections as well as inelastic processes are discussed. It is concluded that feasible high luminosity Ca−Ca collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are an interesting option for γ−γ physics up to about 100 GeV γ−γ CM energy.