Non-perturbative Enhancement of Heavy Quark-Antiquark Pair Annihilation in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Abstract: The annihilation of heavy particles close to thermal equilibrium, which plays a prominent role in the chemical equilibration of heavy quarks in the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) as well as in many classic dark matter scenarios, is reexamined. We derive a scattering amplitude that resums near-threshold attractive interaction of the annihilating particles in terms of the non-relativistic scattering $T$-matrix and Green's function, thereby capturing the pertinent Sommerfeld enhancement from both nonperturbative scattering state and bound state solutions. The derived formula is of such generality that it applies to arbitrary partial wave processes of two-particle annihilation, and enables to incorporate finite widths of the annihilating particles. In a screened potential model, the non-perturbative scattering amplitude is computed and the Sommerfeld enhancement is identified for heavy quark-antiquark annihilation in the QGP.