Photon production from a quark-gluon plasma
- Theory Group, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University, P.O. Box 4349, Stanford, California 94309 (United States)
- Theoretical Physics, Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung (GSI), P.O. Box 110552, D-64220 Darmstadt (Germany)
In-medium interactions of a particle in a hot plasma are considered in the framework of thermal field theory. The formalism to calculate gauge-invariant rates for photon and dilepton production from the medium is given. In the application to a QED plasma, astrophysical consequences are pointed out. The photon production rate from strongly interacting quarks in the quark-gluon plasma, which might be formed in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions, is calculated in the previously unaccessible regime of photon energies of the order of the plasma temperature. For temperatures below the chiral phase transition, an effective field theory incorporating dynamical chiral symmetry breaking is employed, and perturbative QCD at higher temperatures. A smooth transition between both regions is obtained. The relevance to the soft photon problem and to high energy heavy ion experiments is discussed. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}
- OSTI ID:
- 383371
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 54; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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