Direct Photons from Hot Quark Matter in Renormalized Finite-Time-Path QED

Abstract

Within the finite-time-path out-of-equilibrium quantum field theory (QFT), we calculate direct photon emission from early stages of heavy ion collisions, from a narrow window, in which uncertainty relations are still important and they provide a new mechanism for production of photons. The basic difference with respect to earlier calculations, leading to diverging results, is that we use renormalized QED of quarks and photons. Our result is a finite contribution that is consistent with uncertainty relations.

Keywords

• out-of-equilibrium quantum field theory
• direct photons
• dimensional renormalization
• finite-time-path formalism