Dileptons from vector mesons with dropping masses in a nonequilibrium quantum field theoretical framework

Abstract

The influence of time dependent medium modifications of low mass vector mesons on dilepton production is investigated using nonequilibrium quantum field theory. By working in the two-time representation memory effects are fully taken into account. For different scenarios the resulting dilepton yields are compared to quasi-equilibrium calculations and remarkable differences are found leading to the conclusion that memory effects can not be neglected when calculating dilepton yields from heavy ion collisions. Emphasis is put on a dropping mass scenario since it was recently claimed to be ruled out by the NA60 data. Here the memory effects turn out to be particularly important.