| dc.description.abstract | In this work, we examine properties of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) at moderate temperatures and density. These conditions are reached in the later stages of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions after the matter has cooled sufficiently to re-hadronize from a quark-gluon plasma. The properties of matter in this stage are expected to change smoothly with temperature. We explore this behavior in two ways. First, we use finite-temperature sum rules to analyze the properties of vector and axial-vector spectral functions at low temperatures. Previous models used in sum rule analyses frequently led to ambiguous applications. Here we avoid such ambiguities by using an improved vacuum spectral function model together with a strict leading-order-in-temperature expansion. This results in well-defined finite temperature spectral functions. Additionally, we incorporate a finite pion mass, which we show induces an analytical violation of the sum rules. We then proceed to numerically measure that violation.
Second, we calculate thermal photon emissivities of QCD matter from interactions involving both mesons and baryons. We identify a novel source of thermal photons from a system composed of π, ρ, and ῳ mesons, then calculate photon emission rates from this system using both relativistic kinetic theory and thermal field theory. These rates are compared to existing calculations and found to be significant. We then calculate thermal photon emission rates from baryon interactions, using an exhaustive set of both strange and non-strange particles. We again find novel sources of photons from this system, compare the total rates to calculations of current state-of-the-art photon emission rates, and find them to be comparable. | en |
