Decoherence and Entropy Production in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the rapid thermalization in relativistic nuclear collisions by analyzing gluon decoherence times and entropy production, providing a simplified leading-order calculation relevant to experimental observations.

Contribution

It offers a first-principles leading-order computation of gluon decoherence time and explores its connection to entropy production in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Decoherence time computed for gluon ensembles under incoming flux.

Entropy produced during decoherence linked to experimentally measured final state.

Simplified model offers insights into rapid thermalization mechanisms.

Abstract

Short thermalization times of less than 1 fm/c for quark and gluon matter have been suggested by recent experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). It has been difficult to justify this rapid thermalization in first-principle calculations based on perturbation theory or the color glass condensate picture. Here, we address the related question of the decoherence of the gluon field, which is a necessary component of thermalization. We present a simplified leading-order computation of the decoherence time of a gluon ensemble subject to an incoming flux of Weizsacker-Williams gluons. We also discuss the entropy produced during the decoherence process and its relation to the entropy in the final state which has been measured experimentally.