Electromagnetic radiation by quark-gluon plasma in a magnetic field

Abstract

The electromagnetic radiation by quark-gluon plasma in strong magnetic field is calculated. The contributing processes are synchrotron radiation and one--photon annihilation. It is shown that in relativistic heavy--ion collisions at RHIC and LHC synchrotron radiation dominates over the annihilation. Moreover, it constitutes a significant part of all photons produced by the plasma at low transverse momenta; its magnitude depends on the plasma temperature and the magnetic field strength. Electromagnetic radiation in magnetic field is probably the missing piece that resolves a discrepancy between the theoretical models and the experimental data. It is argued that electromagnetic radiation increases with the magnetic field strength and plasma temperature.