Abstract
This study will focus on die production of rho mesons from ultra-peripheral collisions of copper nuclei at relativistic speeds. In ultra-peripheral collisions (UPCs) the heavy ions pass by each other at large impact parameters and do not interact through the strong interaction; still, there are interesting effects due to the very strong electromagnetic fields present in these collisions. The Cu-Cu data to be used are obtained from the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR), a particle detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Previous studies have detected rho meson production in Au-Au and d-Au collisions; adding Cu-Cu data helps to determine the dependence of cross sections on nuclear species. I will present an introduction to ultra-peripheral collisions and briefly discuss the prospective methods to analyze the Cu-Cu UPC data.