English

The Glasma, Photons and the Implications of Anisotropy

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2015-06-19 v1 Nuclear Theory

Abstract

We introduce distribution functions for quarks and gluons in the Glasma and discuss how they satisfy various relationships of statistical physics. We use these distributions to compute photon production in the early stages of heavy ion collisions. Photon rates satisfy geometric scaling, that is, the emission rate per unit area scales as a function of the saturation momenta divided by the transverse momentum of the photon. Photon distributions from the Glasma are steeper than those computed in the Thermalized Quark Gluon Plasma (TQGP). Both the delayed equilibration of the Glasma and a possible anisotropy in the pressure lead to slower expansion and mean times of photon emission of fixed energy are increased. This delayed emission might allow for larger photon elliptic flow.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1403.7462,
  title  = {The Glasma, Photons and the Implications of Anisotropy},
  author = {Larry McLerran and Bjoern Schenke},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1403.7462},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

17 pages, 4 figures