Photon and dilepton emission from the quark-gluon plasma: Some general considerations

Journal Article · Fri Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1985 · Phys. Rev. D; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.31.545· OSTI ID:6092665

McLerran, L D; Toimela, T

The emission rates for photons and dileptons from a quark-gluon plasma are related to the thermal expectation value of an electromagnetic current-current correlation function. This correlation function possesses an invariant-tensor decomposition with structure functions entirely analogous to W/sub 1/ and W/sub 2/ of deep-inelastic scattering of leptons from hadronic targets. The thermal scaling properties of the appropriate structure functions for thermal emission are derived. The thermal structure functions may be computed in a weak-coupling expansion at high plasma temperature. The rates for thermal emission are estimated, and for dileptons, using conservative estimates of the plasma temperature, the thermal-emission process is argued to dominate over the Drell-Yan process for dilepton masses 600 MeV

• Research Organization: Theory Group, MS-106, Fermilab P.O. Box 500, Batavia, Illinois 60510
• OSTI ID: 6092665
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev. D; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev. D; (United States) Vol. 31:3; ISSN PRVDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645202* -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Interactions & Properties-Theoretical-- Electromagnetic Interactions & Properties
645400 -- High Energy Physics-- Field Theory
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
DEEP INELASTIC SCATTERING
DRELL MODEL
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EMISSION
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONS
INELASTIC SCATTERING
INTERACTIONS
LEPTON-BARYON INTERACTIONS
LEPTON-HADRON INTERACTIONS
LEPTON-NUCLEON INTERACTIONS
LEPTONS
LINEAR MOMENTUM
MASS SPECTRA
MATTER
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
PAIR PRODUCTION
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHOTON EMISSION
PRECOMPOUND-NUCLEUS EMISSION
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUARK MATTER
SCALING LAWS
SCATTERING
SPACE
SPECTRA
STRUCTURE FUNCTIONS
TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM