Photon production in an expanding and chemically equilibrating gluon-enriched plasma

Abstract Photon production in a longitudinally and transversely expanding gluon plasma with initially little quark admixture is considered. Chemical equilibration of quarks and gluons is followed by rate equations. The yields of hard photons withE2 GeV are insensitive to chemical equilibration and depend mainly on the initial thermalized state. Medium-energy photons withE1 GeV are more frequently produced in case of faster equilibration, despite of faster cooling. For an assumed fast equilibration we follow the evolution of matter through mixed and hadron phases. The transverse momentum kick, due to transverse expansion, of photons from hadron matter is shown to be reduced for an equation of state with reduced latent heat. The photon yield in the regionE>1 GeV from deconfined matter dominates for conditions, estimated to be achieved at RHIC, in case of a weakly first-order confinement transition.