Thermal photon production rate from nonequilibrium quantum field theory

Abstract

In the framework of closed time path thermal field theory we investigate the production rate of hard photons from a QCD plasma away from equilibrium. Dynamical screening provides a finite rate for chemically nonequilibrated distributions of quarks and gluons just as it does in the equilibrium situation. Pinch singularities are shown to be absent in the real photon rate even away from equilibrium.