Gluon Decay as a Mechanism for Strangeness Production in a Quark-Gluon Plasma

A calculation of thermal gluon decay shows that this process contributes significantly to strangeness production in a quark-gluon plasma. Our analysis does not support recent claims that this is the dominant process. In our calculations we take into account the resummed form of the transverse and longitudinal parts of the gluon propagator following the Braaten-Pisarski method. Our results are subject to the uncertainty concerning the estimate of the damping rate entering the effective gluon propagator.