Virtual photon polarization and dilepton anisotropy in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions

Abstract

The polarization of virtual photons produced in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions provides information on the conditions in the emitting medium. In a hydrodynamic framework, the resulting angular anisotropy of the dilepton final state depends on the flow as well as on the transverse momentum and invariant mass of the photon. We illustrate these effects in dilepton production from quark-antiquark annihilation in the QGP phase and ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ annihilation in the hadronic phase for a static medium in global equilibrium and for a longitudinally expanding system.

arXiv comment7 pages, 2 figures, published version

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• Polarization of Thermal Dilepton Radiation
• Emission of linearly polarized photons in a strongly coupled magnetized plasma from the gauge/gravity correspondence
• Darker and brighter branes: Suppression and enhancement of photon production in a strongly coupled magnetized plasma
• Probing confinement by direct photons and dileptons