Interpretation of Recent SPS Dilepton Data.pdf

a r X i v : h e p - p h / 0 7 0 1 1 6 7 v 2 1 6 A p r 2 0 0 7 Interpretation of Recent SPS Dilepton Data Hendrik van Hees and Ralf Rapp Cyclotron Institute and Physics Department, Texas AM University, College Station, Texas 77843-3366, USA E-mail: hees@comp.tamu.edu Abstract. We summarize our current theoretical understanding of in-medium properties of the electromagnetic current correlator in view of recent dimuon data from the NA60 experiment in In(158 AGeV)-In collisions at the CERN-SPS. We discuss the sensitivity of the results to space-time evolution models for the hot and dense partonic and hadronic medium created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and the contributions from different sources to the dilepton-excess spectra. 1. Introduction A main goal of relativistic heavy-ion collisions is to understand the phase structure of strongly interacting matter as inferred from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Lattice- QCD calculations at high temperatures find a transition from hadronic matter to a deconfined and chirally restored quark-gluon plasma (QGP), where strong modifications of the spectral properties of hadrons are expected. In the low-mass region (M.1 GeV), dileptons are valuable probes for medium modifications of the low-mass vector mesons, ρ, ω and φ. In particular the ρ meson, which has a small lifetime (～1.3 fm/c) already in the vacuum, mostly decays inside the hot and dense medium. Since dileptons do not suffer strong final-state interactions, they provide direct information about the in- medium spectral properties of the light vector mesons. In Pb(158 AGeV)-Au collisions at the Super-Proton-Synchrotron (SPS), an enhancement of dielectrons at low invariant masses [1] indeed indicates strong medium modifications of the electromagnetic (e.m.) current correlator. Recently, with the better mass resolution and statistics of the NA60 dimuon spectra in In(158 AGeV)-In collisions [2] a discrimination of models assuming different mechanisms underlying the