Effect of $q\bar q$ Initial-state Interaction on Dilepton Emission Rate from Quark-Gluon Plasma

We calculate the dilepton production rate from a thermalized quark-gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energies. Higher-order QCD corrections are included by using an analytical correction factor $K^{(i)}$, which takes into account the $q\bar q$ initial-state interactions. We show that the analytic correction factor gives very good agreement with experimental Drell-Yan data and leads to large enhancement of the thermal dilepton emission rates. We compare the thermal dilepton yields with the expected production from open-charm decays and Drell-Yan background and assess the prospects of observing thermal dileptons from the quark-gluon-plasma at invariant masses of a few GeV.