Thermalization of Color Gauge Fields in High Energy Heavy Ion Collisions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how color magnetic fields generated in high energy heavy ion collisions decay rapidly through Nielsen-Olesen unstable modes, leading to quick thermalization of gluons within less than 1 femtometer per c.

Contribution

It provides a model-based calculation of the decay period of color magnetic fields and the thermalization process of gluons in heavy ion collisions.

Findings

Decay of color magnetic fields occurs in less than 1 fm/c.

Gluons produced are incoherent and quickly thermalized.

The decay period is quantitatively estimated using a color glass condensate model.

Abstract

We discuss quantum mechanical decay of color magnetic field generated initially at high energy heavy ion collisions. It is caused by Nielsen-Olesen unstable modes and is accomplished possibly in a period $<1$fm/c. We show that the decay products, i.e. incoherent gluons may be thermalized in a sufficiently short period ($< 1$fm/c). The precise determination of the period is made by calculating two point function of the color magnetic field in a model of color glass condensate.