Turbulent thermalization of weakly coupled non-abelian plasmas

TL;DR

This paper investigates the turbulent thermalization process in weakly coupled non-abelian plasmas, revealing a Kolmogorov cascade behavior and validating kinetic theory descriptions against lattice gauge simulations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that classical-statistical lattice gauge theory and kinetic theory can accurately describe turbulent thermalization in isotropic, highly occupied non-abelian plasmas.

Findings

System exhibits turbulent Kolmogorov cascade.

Kinetic theory reproduces key features of evolution.

Validates classical and kinetic approaches for plasma dynamics.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of weakly coupled non-abelian plasmas within the frameworks of classical-statistical lattice gauge-theory and kinetic theory. We focus on a class of systems which are highly occupied, isotropic at all times and initially characterized by a single momentum scale. These represent an idealized version of the situation in relativistic heavy ion-collisions in the color-glass condensate picture, where on a time scale $1/Q_s$ after the collision of heavy nuclei a longitudinally expanding plasma characterized by the saturation scale $Q_s$ is formed. Our results indicate that the system evolves according to a turbulent Kolmogorov cascade in the classical regime. Taking this into account, the kinetic description is able to reproduce characteristic features of the evolution correctly.