Gluon Pair Production From Space-Time Dependent Chromofield

Abstract

We compute the probabilty for the processes A -> q \bar{q}, gg via vacuum polarization in the presence of a classical space-time dependent non-abelian field A by applying the background field method of QCD. The processes we consider are leading order in gA and are simillar to A -> e^+e^- in QED. Gluons are treated like a matter field and gauge transformations of the quantum gluonic field are different from those of the classical chromofield. To obtain the correct physical polarization of gluons we deduct the corresponding ghost contributions. We find that the expression for the probability of the leading order process A -> gg is transverse with respect to the momentum of the field. We observe that the contributions from higher order processes to gluon pair production need to be added to the this leading order process. Our result presented here is a part of the expression for the total probability for gluon pair production from a space-time dependent chromfield. The result for q \bar{q} pair production is similar to that of the e^+e^- pair production in QED. Quark and gluon production from a space-time dependent chromofield will play an important role in the study of the production and equilibration of the quark-gluon plasma in ultra relativistic heavy-ion collisions.