Beyond leading-logarithm photon production from two-loop diagrams in a hot QCD medium

Abstract

We investigate high-energy photon production from a quark-gluon plasma by evaluating the imaginary part of the two-loop photon self-energies in thermal QCD. Working within the imaginary-time formalism, we derive analytical expressions for both the leading-logarithmic and the beyond-leading-logarithmic contributions to the photon production rate. The rates obtained within the thermal field theoretical framework agree with those derived from kinetic theory calculations for the relevant photon-production processes.

Comments: 41 pages, 5 figures