Related papers: Bjorken Flow, Plasma Instabilities, and Thermaliza…
Using kinetic theory, we analyze the interplay of elastic and inelastic collisions in the thermalization of the quark-gluon plasma. The main focus is the dynamics and equilibration of long wavelength modes.
Recently, a lot of effort has been put into describing the thermalization of the quark-gluon plasma using the gauge/gravity duality. In this context we here present a full numerical solution of the early far-from-equilibrium formation of…
We describe how thermalization occurs in heavy ion collisions in the framework of perturbative QCD. When the saturation scale $Q_s$ is large compared to $\Lambda_{QCD}$, thermalization takes place during a time of order…
We give an updated overview of both weak and strong coupling methods to describe the approach to a plasma described by viscous hydrodynamics, a process now called hydrodynamisation. At weak coupling the very first moments after a heavy ion…
Understanding the applicability of fluid-dynamical models to describe the hot and dense matter produced in the early stages of hadronic collisions is a fundamental problem in the field. In particular, it is not clear to what degree this…
We argue that isotropization and, consequently, thermalization of the system of gluons and quarks produced in an ultrarelativistic heavy ion collision does not follow from Feynman diagram analysis to any order in the coupling constant. We…
We report recent progress on understanding the thermalization of the quark-gluon plasma during the early stage in a heavy ion collision. The initially high overpopulation in the far-from-equilibrium gluonic matter ("Glasma") is shown to…
We investigate how relativistic, nonabelian plasmas approach equilibrium in a general context. Our treatment is entirely parametric and for small Yang-Mills coupling $\alpha$. First we study isotropic systems with an initially…
The thermalisation of a strongly-coupled plasma is studied through the AdS/CFT correspondence. The system starts behaving as in viscous hydrodynamics shortly after the end of the perturbation. Local and nonlocal probes are used to…
We show the evolution of a gluon plasma towards equilibrium starting at some early moment when the momentum distribution in the central region is momentaneously isotropic. Using HIJING results for Au+Au collision as initial input, we…
In ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions, the matter formed shortly after the collision is a dense, out of equilibrium, system of gluons characterized by a semi-hard momentum scale $Q_{\rm s}$. Simple power counting arguments indicate…
In this talk, I review the important role played by plasma instabilities in the thermalization of quark-gluon plasmas at very high energy. [Conference talk presented at Strong and Electroweak Mattter 2004, Helsinki, Finland, June 16--19.]
We report recent progress on understanding the thermalization of the quark-gluon plasma during the early stage in a heavy ion collision. The initially high overpopulation in the pre-equilibrium gluonic matter (``glasma'') is shown to play a…
To achieve an understanding of the thermalization of a quark-gluon plasma, starting from QCD without using model assumptions, is a formidable task. We study the early stage dynamics of a relativistic heavy ion collision in the framework of…
The contribution presents a brief summary of the Gauge/Gravity approach to the study of hydrodynamic flow of the quark-gluon plasma formed in heavy-ion collisions, in a boost-invariant setting (Bjorken flow). Considering the ideal case of a…
The early stage of high multiplicity nuclear collisions is represented by a nearly quarkless, hot, deconfined pure gluon plasma. This new scenario should be characterized by a suppression of high $p_T$ photons and dileptons as well as by…
In relativistic heavy ion collisions, a highly occupied gluonic matter is created shortly after initial impact, which is in a non-thermal state and often referred to as the Glasma. Successful phenomenology suggests that the glasma evolves…
We present an introductory review of the early time dynamics of high-energy heavy-ion collisions and the kinetics of high temperature QCD. The equilibration mechanisms in the quark-gluon plasma uniquely reflect the non-abelian and…
I discuss how local thermal equilibrium and hydrodynamical flow are reached in heavy-ion collisions in the weak coupling limit.
Plasma instabilities are parametrically the dominant nonequilibrium dynamics of a weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma. In recent years the time evolution of the corresponding collective colour fields has been studied in stationary anisotropic…