Apparent Thermalization due to Plasma Instabilities in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Peter Arnold, Jonathan Lenaghan, Guy D. Moore, and Laurence G. Yaffe
Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 072302 – Published 23 February 2005

Abstract

Hydrodynamical modeling of heavy-ion collisions at RHIC suggests that the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) “thermalizes” in a remarkably short time scale, about 0.6fm/c. We argue that this should be viewed as indicating fast isotropization, but not necessarily complete thermalization, of the nonequilibrium QGP. Non-Abelian plasma instabilities can drive local isotropization of an anisotropic QGP on a time scale which is faster than ordinary perturbative scattering processes. As a result, we argue that theoretical expectations based on weak-coupling analysis are not necessarily in conflict with hydrodynamic modeling of the early part of RHIC collisions, provided one recognizes the key role of non-Abelian plasma instabilities.

  • Received 29 September 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.072302

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Peter Arnold and Jonathan Lenaghan

  • Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901, USA

Guy D. Moore

  • Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 University Street, Montréal Quebec, Canada H3A 2T8

Laurence G. Yaffe

  • Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA

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Issue

Vol. 94, Iss. 7 — 25 February 2005

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