Direct photons: a nonequilibrium signal of the expanding quark-gluon plasma

Abstract

Direct photon production from a longitudinally expanding quark-gluon plasma (QGP) at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies is studied with a real-time kinetic description that is consistently incorporated with hydrodynamics. Within Bjorken's hydrodynamical model, energy nonconserving (anti)quark bremsstrahlung q(\bar{q})\to q(\bar{q})\gamma and quark-antiquark annihilation q\bar{q}\to \gamma are shown to be the dominant nonequilibrium effects during the transient lifetime of the QGP. For central collisions we find a significant excess of direct photons in the range of transverse momentum 1-2 \lesssim p_T \lesssim 5 GeV/c as compared to equilibrium results. The photon rapidity distribution exhibits a central plateau. The transverse momentum distribution at midrapidity falls off with a {\em power law} p^{-\nu}_T with 2.5 \lesssim \nu \lesssim 3 as a consequence of these energy nonconserving processes, providing a distinct experimental {\em nonequilibrium signature}. The power law exponent \nu increases with the initial temperature of the QGP and hence with the total multiplicity rapidity distribution dN_\pi/dy.