Pressure isotropization of an equilibrating quark-gluon plasma

TL;DR

This study investigates how a quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy ion collisions reaches pressure isotropy, revealing that full thermalization is only temporary and depends on expansion, hadronization, and scattering details.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of pressure isotropization dynamics in a quark-gluon plasma using the AMPT model, highlighting the transient nature of thermalization.

Findings

Pressure isotropy is achieved only temporarily.

Thermalization during evolution is partial.

Expansion and scattering influence isotropization.

Abstract

Pressure isotropization of an equilibrating quark-gluon plasma produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions is studied within the framework of a multi-phase transport model (AMPT). The time evolution of the bulk properties of the quark-gluon plasma is found to depend on its expansion dynamics and hadronization scheme as well as the scattering cross sections among quarks and gluons. It is further found that the pressure isotropy of the produced quark-gluon plasma can only be achieved temporarily, indicating that there is only partial thermalization during the time evolution of the quark-gluon plasma.