Hidden local field theory and dileptons in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The notion of "hadronic freedom" is introduced based on the vector manifestation of hidden local symmetry and is used to suggest that the dileptons measured in relativistic heavy-ion collisions do not provide direct information on the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry and hence on the mechanism for mass generation of light-quark hadrons. We give arguments how the dileptons emitted from those vector mesons whose masses are shifted a la Brown-Rho (BR) scaling by the vacuum change in temperature - as in heavy-ion collisions - and/or density - as in cold compressed matter - could be strongly suppressed in the hadronic free region between the chiral restoration point and the "flash point" at which the vector mesons recover > 90% of their free-space on-shell masses and the full strong coupling strength. It may seem ironical that the very mechanism i.e., the vector manifestation in hidden local symmetry, that is to make the mass drop and modify the spectral function is in turn responsible for the dilepton suppression. A possible falsification of this drastic prediction will be indicated. We also briefly discuss the potential role played by the holographic dimension intrinsic in gravity-gauge duality that provides a unified field theory description of hadrons - both mesons and baryons - under extreme conditions. Baryons arise as coherent states of pions and vector mesons of holographic QCD which define the ground state or the "vacuum" on which mesonic excitations could undergo BR scaling.