From a colored glass condensate to the gluon plasma: Equilibration in high energy heavy ion collisions

Journal Article · Thu Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 2001 · Physical Review C

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.63.024609· OSTI ID:40206138

Bjoraker, Jefferson; Venugopalan, Raju

The initial distribution of gluons at the very early times after a high-energy heavy ion collision is described by the bulk scale Q{sub s} of gluon saturation in the nuclear wave function. The subsequent evolution of the system towards kinetic equilibrium is described by a nonlinear Landau equation for the single particle distributions [A. H. Mueller, Nucl. Phys. B572, 227 (2000); Phys. Lett. B 475, 220 (2000)]. In this paper, we solve this equation numerically for the idealized initial conditions proposed by Mueller, and study the evolution of the system to equilibrium. We discuss the sensitivity of our results on the dynamical screening of collinear divergences. In a particular model of dynamical screening, the convergence to the hydrodynamic limit is seen to be rapid relative to hydrodynamic time scales. The equilibration time, the initial temperature, and the chemical potential are shown to have a strong functional dependence on the initial gluon saturation scale Q{sub s}.

• Sponsoring Organization: (US)
• OSTI ID: 40206138
• Journal Information: Physical Review C, Journal Name: Physical Review C Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 63; ISSN 0556-2813
• Publisher: The American Physical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
CONDENSATES
CONVERGENCE
DISTRIBUTION
FUNCTIONALS
GLASS
GLUONS
HEAVY IONS
HYDRODYNAMICS
KINETICS
PLASMA
SATURATION
SENSITIVITY
WAVE FUNCTIONS