2002/05/17 by Kevin L. Haglin, Kevin Haglin, Haglin, Kevin L.
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.nucl-th/0205050
12 pages revtex4, 4 figures
arxiv created 2002/05/17 · openalex publication_date 2002/05/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We establish the extent to which photons and dileptons are penetrating probes of hot hadronic matter by computing mean free paths. Absorption is indeed negligible for real photons as mean free paths are roughly tenths of \AAngströms. However, vector dominance effects, which provide rich structure in virtual photon mass spectra, introduce nonnegligible reabsorption and rehadronization resulting in mean free paths of the order of tens of femtometers. Consequences are illustrated by considering the net dilepton yield near the rho peak via thermal ππannihilation from a short-lived hadronic fireball. Results suggest that disappearance of the rho in heavy-ion collisions can be due in part to reabsorption/rehadronization rather than solely due to collective effects.