Bose--Einstein Condensation and Thermalization of the Quark Gluon Plasma

Details Bose--Einstein Condensation and Thermalization of the Quark Gluon Plasma Bose--Einstein Condensation and Thermalization of the Quark Gluon Plasma

2011-07-26

arxiv.org/abs/1107.5296v2

Physics

High Energy Physics

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

19 pages, 1 figure, v2 is a substantial re-write aimed at clarifying the presentation. Major arguments essentially unchanged,

Scientific paper

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 that this system is over-occupied: the gluon occupation number is parametrically large when compared to a system in thermal equilibrium with the same energy density. On short time scales, soft elastic scatterings tend to drive the system towards the formation of a Bose--Einstein condensate that contains a large fraction of the gluons while contributing little to the energy density. The lifetime and existence of this condensate depends on whether inelastic processes, that occur on the same time scale as the elastic ones, preferably increase or decrease the number of gluons. During this overpopulated stage, and all the way to thermalization, the system behaves as a strongly interacting fluid, even though the elementary coupling constant is small. We argue that while complete isotropization may never be reached, the system may yet evolve for a long time with a fixed anisotropy between average longitudinal and transverse momenta.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Bose--Einstein Condensation and Thermalization of the Quark Gluon Plasma does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Bose--Einstein Condensation and Thermalization of the Quark Gluon Plasma, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Bose--Einstein Condensation and Thermalization of the Quark Gluon Plasma will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-94472