Dynamical entropy of dense QCD states

TL;DR

This paper introduces a formulation of dynamical entropy for dense QCD states in the saturation regime, linking non-equilibrium thermodynamics with gluon distribution evolution and bridging weak and strong coupling descriptions of heavy-ion collisions.

Contribution

It proposes a novel statistical physics framework for dynamical entropy in dense QCD states, connecting gluon correlations with thermodynamic properties and extending to initial conditions in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Derived an expression for dynamical entropy in terms of gluon distributions.

Verified positivity and irreversibility of the entropy evolution.

Connected weak and strong coupling descriptions via entropy matching.

Abstract

We discuss dense states of QCD matter formed in high-energy hadronic and heavy-ion collisions from the point of view of statistical physics of non-equilibrium processes. For this sake, we first propose a formulation of the dynamical entropy of dense QCD states in the "saturation regime" leading to a color glass condensate (CGC). The statistical physics description amounts to describe the modification of the color correlation length with energy as a compression process for which non equilibrium thermodynamic properties are applicable. We derive an expression of the dynamical entropy in terms of the rapidity evolution of the unintegrated gluon distributions in the colliding nuclei, verifying suitable positivity and irreversibility properties. We extend this approach to the initial pre-equilibrium (glasma) state of an heavy-ion collision. It allows for a definition of the initial entropy before the evolution towards the hydrodynamic regime as a function of the glasma correlation length and an overlap parameter characterizing the low-momentum spectrum of the glasma state. This initial entropy, by extension to the N=4 SYM theory, is then matched as the key input parameter to the strong coupling evaluation of thermalization towards the hydrodynamic regime based on the AdS/CFT correspondence. It thus allows to cast a bridge between the weak and strong coupling phases of an heavy-ion reaction.