Dielectron production at midrapidity at low transverse momentum in peripheral and semi-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV

The first measurement of the e⁺e⁻ pair production at low lepton pair transverse momentum (p _T,ee) and low invariant mass (m _ee) in non-central Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 5.02 TeV at the LHC is presented. The dielectron production is studied with the ALICE detector at midrapidity (|η _e | < 0.8) as a function of invariant mass (0.4 ≤ m _ee < 2.7 GeV/c ²) in the 50–70% and 70–90% centrality classes for p _T,ee < 0.1 GeV/c, and as a function of p _T,ee in three m _ee intervals in the most peripheral Pb–Pb collisions. Below a p _T,ee of 0.1 GeV/c, a clear excess of e⁺e⁻ pairs is found compared to the expectations from known hadronic sources and predictions of thermal radiation from the medium. The m _ee excess spectra are reproduced, within uncertainties, by different predictions of the photon–photon production of dielectrons, where the photons originate from the extremely strong electromagnetic fields generated by the highly Lorentz-contracted Pb nuclei. Lowest-order quantum electrodynamic (QED) calculations, as well as a model that takes into account the impact-parameter dependence of the average transverse momentum of the photons, also provide a good description of the p _T,ee spectra. The measured 〈pT,ee2〉 of the excess p _T,ee spectrum in peripheral Pb–Pb collisions is found to be comparable to the values observed previously at RHIC in a similar phase-space region. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].