Copious Direct Photon Production: A Possible Resolution of the Prompt-Lepton Puzzle

Abstract

We propose that all direct leptons not due to vector meson decay can be attributed to the decay of virtual photons. At $p_{\perp }\approx 3$ GeV/c, we expect $\frac{\gamma }{\pi }$, the ratio of direct photons to pions, to be about 10 to 20% for $\sqrt{s}\approx 20-60$ GeV.