Investigating the temperature dependence of the specific shear viscosity of QCD matter with dilepton radiation

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This work reports on investigations of the effects on the evolution of viscous hydrodynamics and on the flow coefficients of thermal dileptons, originating from a temperature-dependent specific shear viscosity $\eta/s (T)$ at temperatures beyond 180 MeV formed at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC).

• We show that the elliptic flow of thermal dileptons can resolve the magnitude of $\eta/s$ at the high temperatures, where partonic degrees of freedom become relevant, whereas discriminating between different specific functional forms will likely not be possible at RHIC using this observable.