Luminosity of merging beam–beam collisions

A new type of particle collisions is considered. In merging collisions two comoving beams intersect each other at small angle to provide low collision energy required for nuclear fusion experiments. An expression for the luminosity and for the beam–beam parameter of merging collisions are obtained. It is shown that the luminosity has a maximum value depending on particle velocity. For typical parameters of heavy-ion collider with unstable nuclei, a merging beam–beam collision imposes less severe constraints on beam intensity than incoherent space charge effect.