EMMI Rapid Reaction Task Force on "Thermalization in Non-abelian Plasmas"

TL;DR

This paper reviews diverse theoretical approaches and simulation results concerning thermalization processes in non-abelian plasmas, with implications for heavy-ion collisions, early-universe cosmology, and ultracold atomic systems.

Contribution

It summarizes recent developments from the EMMI Rapid Reaction Task Force on thermalization in non-abelian plasmas, comparing weak and strong coupling scenarios and their broader physical contexts.

Findings

Classical-statistical lattice simulations test weak coupling estimates.

Gauge-string duality provides insights into strong coupling thermalization.

Connections to cosmology and ultracold atoms broaden the impact of the study.

Abstract

Recently, different proposals have been put forward on how thermalization proceeds in heavy-ion collisions in the idealized limit of very large nuclei at sufficiently high energy. Important aspects of the parametric estimates at weak coupling may be tested using well-established classical-statistical lattice simulations of the far-from-equilibrium gluon dynamics. This has to be confronted with strong coupling scenarios in related theories based on gauge-string dualities. Furthermore, closely related questions about far-from-equilibrium dynamics arise in early-universe cosmology and in non-relativistic systems of ultracold atoms. These were central topics of the EMMI Rapid Reaction Task Force meeting held on December 12-14, 2011, at the University of Heidelberg, which we report on.