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Title: Matching the Nonequilibrium Initial Stage of Heavy Ion Collisions to Hydrodynamics with QCD Kinetic Theory

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters

High-energy nuclear collisions produce a nonequilibrium plasma of quarks and gluons which thermalizes and exhibits hydrodynamic flow. There are currently no practical frameworks to connect the early particle production in classical field simulations to the subsequent hydrodynamic evolution. We build such a framework using nonequilibrium Green’s functions, calculated in QCD kinetic theory, to propagate the initial energy-momentum tensor to the hydrodynamic phase. We demonstrate that this approach can be easily incorporated into existing hydrodynamic simulations, leading to stronger constraints on the energy density at early times and the transport properties of the QCD medium. Based on (conformal) scaling properties of the Green’s functions, we further obtain pragmatic bounds for the applicability of hydrodynamics in nuclear collisions.

Research Organization:
Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States); State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Albany, NY (United States); Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-88ER40388; FG02-05ER41367; FG02-97ER41014
OSTI ID:
1503387
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1609637
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Vol. 122 Journal Issue: 12; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 81 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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