Flash of Prompt Photons from the Early Stage of Heavy-Ion Collisions

Abstract

We briefly recall the tremendous strides in the studies of the parton cascade model made by Klaus Geiger. Next, we argue that photons may provide confirmation of several of these ideas. Thus we know that, copious internetted partonic cascades may develop in the wake of relativistic collisions of nuclei at CERN SPS and BNL RHIC energies, We use the parton cascade model to estimate the emission of single photons generated from such cascades due to the branching of quarks $q \to q \gamma$, scattering of quarks and gluons, and annihilation of quarks. The formation of a hot and dense partonic matter is shown to be preceded by an intense radiation of photons from the QED branching of quarks. This is similar to the QCD branching $q \to qg$ which along with the gluon multiplication ($g \to gg$) which is known to play a crucial role in the formation of the dense partonic plasma.