Hadronization cross--sections at the chiral phase transition of a quark plasma

Abstract

Hadronization at finite temperature $T$ is discussed in the framework of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. The differential cross-section for the conversion of a quark--antiquark pair into two pions to first order in a $1/N_c$ expansion is calculated as a function of the c.m.~energy $s$ and temperature $T$. In particular, approaching the temperature $T_c$ of the chiral phase transition, the hadronization cross-section diverges like $\ln |1-{T\over T_c}|$.