Related papers: Quark-Gluon Plasma Thermalization and Plasma Insta…
Thermalization of quark-gluon plasmas in heavy-ion collisions is a difficult theoretical problem. One theoretical goal has been to understand the physics of thermalization in the relatively simplifying limit of arbitrarily high energy…
We study the role of QCD plasma instabilities in non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasmas. First, we argue that such instabilities must drastically modify the "bottom-up" thermalization scenario for heavy-ion collisions. Second, we discuss…
In these lectures, I will attempt a pedagogical and qualitative introduction to the theory of equilibrium and thermalization of quark-gluon plasmas. I assume only that the reader is familiar with quantum field theory at zero temperature and…
Coupling of the quark-gluon plasma from the early stage of heavy-ion collisions is argued to be weaker at LHC than at RHIC. For this reason, the role of instabilities - the pre-equilibrium plasma is unstable with respect to chromomagnetic…
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.
Hydrodynamical modeling of heavy ion collisions at RHIC suggests that the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) "thermalizes" in a remarkably short time scale, about 0.6 fm/c. We argue that this should be viewed as indicating fast isotropization, but…
At asymptotically high energies, thermalization in heavy ion collisions can be described via weak-coupling QCD. We present a complete treatment of how thermalization proceeds, at the parametric weak-coupling level. We show that plasma…
When the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) - a system of deconfined quarks and gluons - is in a nonequilibrium state, it is usually unstable with respect to color collective modes. The instabilities, which are expected to strongly influence dynamics…
The lecture provides an introduction to thermal field theory and its applications to the physics of the quark-gluon plasma, possibly created in relativistic heavy ion collisions. In particular the Hard Thermal Loop resummation technique,…
We describe some of the recent progress in the calculation of thermodynamic quantities in QCD at high temperatures and densities by weak-coupling techniques and extrapolation to realistic coupling strength. We argue that a (mostly) weakly…
We study the mechanism responsible for the onset of instabilities in a chiral phase transition at nonzero temperature and baryon chemical potential. As a low-energy effective model, we consider an expanding relativistic plasma of quarks…
Central nuclear collisions at energies far above 1 GeV/nucleon may provide for conditions, where the transition from highly excited hadronic matter into quark matter or quark-gluon plasma can be probed. Here I review our current…
The thermalization of quark gluon plasma created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is a crucial theoretical question in understanding the onset of hydrodynamics, and in a broad sense, a key step to the exploration of thermalization in…
The lecture provides a brief introduction of thermal field theory within imaginary time formalism, the Hard Thermal Loop perturbation theory and some of its application to the physics of the quark-gluon plasma, possibly created in…
I discuss different models which predict changes in the mass of the thermal $\rho$ field. I emphasize that while the predictions are strongly model dependent, nevertheless substantial shifts in the thermal $\rho$ mass are expected to occur…
Role of polarization studies in heavy ion physics is discussed with emphasis on the search for quark-gluon plasma formation and studies of its dynamical properties.
I review recent analytical and numerical advances in the study of non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma physics. I concentrate on studies of the dynamics of plasmas which are locally anisotropic in momentum space. In contrast to locally…
Using the kinetic theory we discuss how the particle and energy densities of the quark-gluon plasma fluctuate in a space-time cell. The fluctuations in the equilibrium plasma and in that one from the early stage of ultrarelativistic…
We describe the energy distribution of hard gluons travelling through a dense quark-gluon plasma whose temperature increases linearly with time, within a probabilistic perturbative approach. The results were applied to the thermalization…
Non-Abelian plasma instabilities may be responsible for the fast apparent quark-gluon thermalization in relativistic heavy-ion collisions if their exponential growth is not hindered by nonlinearities. We study the real-time evolution of…