The differential multiplicity of dileptons in a hot and magnetized quark-gluon plasma, $\Delta_{ B}\equiv dN_{ B}/d^{ 4}xd^{ 4}q$, is derived from first principles. The constant magnetic field $B$ is assumed to be aligned in a fixed spatial direction. It is shown that the anisotropy induced by the $B$ field is mainly reflected in the general structure of photon spectral density function. This is related to the imaginary part of the vacuum polarization tensor, $\mbox{ Im}[\Pi^{ \mu\nu}]$, which is derived in a first order perturbative approximation. As expected, the final analytical expression for $\Delta_{ B}$ includes a trace over the product of a photonic part, $\mbox{ Im}[\Pi^{ \mu\nu}]$, and a leptonic part, ${ \cal{ L}}_{ \mu\nu}$. It is shown that $\Delta_{ B}$ consists of two parts, $\Delta_{ B}^{ \|}$ and $\Delta_{ B}^{ \perp}$, arising from the components $(\mu,\nu)=(\|,\|)$ and $(\mu,\nu)=(\perp,\perp)$ of $\mbox{ Im}[\Pi^{ \mu\nu}]$ and ${ \cal{ L}}_{ \mu\nu}$. Here, the transverse and longitudinal directions are defined with respect to the direction of the $B$ field. Combining $\Delta_{ B}^{ \|}$ and $\Delta_{ B}^{ \perp}$, a novel anisotropy factor $\nu_{ B}$ is introduced. Using the final analytical expression of $\Delta_{ B}$, the possible interplay between the temperature $T$ and the magnetic field strength $eB$ on the ratio $\Delta_{ B}/\Delta_{ 0}$ and $\nu_{ B}$ is numerically studied. Here, $\Delta_{ 0}$ is the Born approximated dilepton multiplicity in the absence of external magnetic fields. It is, in particular, shown that for each fixed $T$ and $B$, in the vicinity of certain threshold energies, $\Delta_{ B}\gg \Delta_{ 0}$ and $\Delta_{ B}^{ \perp}\gg \Delta_{ B}^{ \|}$. The latter anisotropy may be interpreted as one of the microscopic sources of the macroscopic anisotropies, reflecting themselves, e.g., in the elliptic asymmetry factor $v_{ 2}$ of dileptons.
Categories: hep-ph nucl-th