Dileptons from vector mesons with dropping masses in a nonequilibrium quantum field theoretical framework

Original · EN

The influence of time dependent medium modifications of low mass vector mesons on dilepton production is investigated using nonequilibrium quantum field theory. By working in the two-time representation memory effects are fully taken into account. For different scenarios the resulting dilepton yields are compared to quasi-equilibrium calculations and remarkable differences are found leading to the conclusion that memory effects can not be neglected when calculating dilepton yields from heavy ion collisions. Emphasis is put on a dropping mass scenario since it was recently claimed to be ruled out by the NA60 data. Here the memory effects turn out to be particularly important.