3-PARTICLE INTERACTIONS IN A QUARK-GLUON PLASMA

We explore the influence of three-particle interactions, in either the initial or final state, on the collision rate in a high temperature p lasma, and on the rate of quark and anti-quark pair (flavor) productio n. When the interactions are taken to be screened at the Debye wave nu mber q(D) approximate to T, three-particle interactions contribute sig nificantly to the collision rate, but only marginally enhance flavor p roduction over that from two-particle interactions. The magnitudes of the rates are, however, sensitive to the infra-red thresholds, which e mphasizes the need for a reliable analysis of this issue. Our results also highlight the importance of treating many-particle processes adeq uately in the space-time evolution of quarks and gluons produced in ul trarelativistic heavy-ion collisions.