Quark Pair Production in the Chiral Phase Transition

The production of quarks and antiquarks during a sudden restoration of chiral symmetry, as it might occur in very energetic heavy ion collisions, is considered. If gluons are already present they can assist additively to the overall production: real gluons are partially decaying during such a chiral transition. The total number of produced quarks is calculated and found to be quite sizeable. It is speculated that such a phenomenon could give rise to a significant contribution to the overall quark pair creation in the preequilibrium stage of the heavy ion collision.