  We address dilepton production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV by
employing the parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) off-shell transport
approach. Within the PHSD one goes beyond the quasiparticle approximation by
solving generalized transport equations on the basis of the off-shell
Kadanoff-Baym equations for the Green's functions in the phase-space
representation. The approach consistently describes the full evolution of a
relativistic heavy-ion collision from the initial hard scatterings and string
formation through the dynamical deconfinement phase transition to the
quark-gluon plasma (QGP) as well as hadronization and to the subsequent
interactions in the hadronic phase. {With partons described in the PHSD by the
dynamical quasiparticle model (DQPM) - matched to reproduce lattice QCD results
in thermodynamic equilibrium} - we calculate, in particular, the dilepton
radiation from partonic interactions through the reactions q+qbar->gamma^*,
q+qbar->gamma^*+g and q+g->gamma^*+q (qbar+g->gamma^*+qbar) in the early stage
of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. By comparing our results to the data from
the PHENIX Collaboration, we study the relative importance of different
dilepton production mechanisms and point out the regions in phase space where
partonic channels are dominant. Furthermore, explicit predictions are presented
for dileptons within the acceptance of the STAR detector system and compared to
the preliminary data.
