[Submitted on 25 Dec 2014]
Effects of quark chemical equilibration on thermal photon elliptic flow
Large hadronic elliptic flow is considered as an evidence for the existence of a strongly-coupled QGP fluid in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. On the other hand, direct photon has recently been found to be much larger than hydrodynamic estimations, which is recognized as "photon puzzle". In this study, I discuss the implication of late production of quarks in an initially gluon-rich medium because photons are coupled to quarks. Numerical analyses imply that thermal photon can be visibly enhanced. This indicates that interplay of equilibration processes and collective expansion would be important.