Exclusive vector meson production in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Exclusive vector meson production reactions such as Au+Au-->Au+Au+V, where V=rho, omega, phi, or J/psi, can proceed through photon-Pomeron and photon-meson interactions. Photons from the electromagnetic field of one nucleus interact coherently with the other nucleus. Photonuclear cross sections an scaled from gamma p data and convoluted with the photon spectrum to find the exclusive rates. The cross sections at the RHIC and LHC heavy ion colliders are huge, 10% of the total hadronic cross section at RHIC and 50% at LHC. These accelerators may be useful as vector meson factories. With iodine beams at RHIC, 640 rho are produced each second( 10(10)/yr); with calcium at the LHC the rate is 240 kHz. The phi rates are 39 Hz at RHIC and 15 kHz at LHC, while the J/psi rate is 0.3 Hz at RHIC and 780 Hz at the LHC. Because of the coherent couplings, the reactions kinematics are similar to coherent two-photon interactions; we discuss the interplay between the two reactions. [S0556-2813(99)00207-1].