Out of equilibrium dynamics of coherent non-abelian gauge fields

TL;DR

This paper explores the complex out-of-equilibrium behavior of intense non-abelian gauge fields, revealing the coexistence of Nielsen-Olesen instabilities and parametric resonance, with implications for heavy-ion collision dynamics.

Contribution

It generalizes Nielsen-Olesen instabilities to include temporal modulations and fluctuations, providing new insights into the dynamics of color flux tubes.

Findings

Identification of coexistence of Nielsen-Olesen instability and parametric resonance.

Modeling of color flux tube dynamics relevant to heavy-ion collisions.

Analysis of the impact of initial condition fluctuations on gauge field evolution.

Abstract

We study out-of-equilibrium dynamics of intense non-abelian gauge fields. Generalizing the well-known Nielsen-Olesen instabilities for constant initial color-magnetic fields, we investigate the impact of temporal modulations and fluctuations in the initial conditions. This leads to a remarkable coexistence of the original Nielsen-Olesen instability and the subdominant phenomenon of parametric resonance. Taking into account that the fields may be correlated only over a limited transverse size, we model characteristic aspects of the dynamics of color flux tubes relevant in the context of heavy-ion collisions.