Dilepton production from hot and magnetized hadronic matter

TL;DR

This paper calculates dilepton emission rates from hot, magnetized hadronic matter using finite temperature field theory, revealing magnetic field effects on the spectral function and low invariant mass yields.

Contribution

It introduces a novel calculation of the rho-meson spectral function in a magnetized medium, highlighting magnetic field effects on dilepton production.

Findings

Spectral function proportional to dilepton rate

Additional low-mass yield due to magnetic field effects

Landau level differences influence the spectral structure

Abstract

The rate of dilepton emission from a magnetized hot hadronic medium is calculated in the framework of real time formalism of finite temperature field theory. We evaluate the one loop self-energy of neutral rho-meson containing thermo-magnetic propagators for the charged pions in the loop. The in-medium thermo-magnetic spectral function of rho obtained by solving the Dyson-Schwinger equation is shown to be proportional to the dilepton production rate. The study of the analytic structure of the neutral rho-meson spectral function in such a medium shows that in addition to the usual contribution coming from the Unitary cut beyond the two-pion threshold there is a non-trivial yield in the low invariant mass region originating due to the fact that the charged pions occupy different Landau levels before and after scattering with the neutral rho-meson and is purely a finite magnetic field effect.