Photon production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions using rates with two-loop calculations from quark matter

The production of single photons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at CERN SPS, BNL RHIC and CERN LHC energies is re-examined in view of the recent studies of Aurenche et al., which show that the rate of photon production from quark–gluon plasma evaluated at the order of two loops by far exceeds the rates evaluated at the one-loop level, which have formed the basis of all the estimates of photons so far. We find that the production of photons from quark matter could easily outshine those from the hadronic matter under certain ideal conditions. Received: 6 April 1999 / Revised version: 30 April 1999 / Published online: 8 September 1999