Electromagnetic probes in heavy-ion collisions: progress and open questions

Abstract

I present an overview of photon and dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions, highlighting recent progress and ongoing challenges, with focus on hard initial scatterings, pre-equilibrium electromagnetic emission, as well as thermal and hadronic production. The potential of photons and dileptons to probe low-energy collisions is discussed briefly.

arXiv comment1 figure, 10 pages, contribution to Hard Probes 2023 proceedings