Early thermalization of quark-gluon matter by elastic 3-to-3 scattering

TL;DR

This paper calculates the squared amplitudes for elastic 3-to-3 parton scatterings in perturbative QCD to determine the early thermalization time and initial temperature of quark-gluon plasma, highlighting different thermalization times for quark and gluon matter.

Contribution

It introduces a calculation of squared amplitudes for elastic 3-to-3 scatterings and solves transport equations to estimate thermalization times and initial temperatures of quark-gluon matter.

Findings

Quark and gluon matter thermalize at different times

Calculated thermalization times are consistent with experimental data

Initial temperatures of quark-gluon plasma are estimated from the model

Abstract

The early thermalization is crucial to the quark-gluon plasma as a perfect liquid and results from many-body scattering. We calculate squared amplitudes for elastic parton-parton-parton scattering in perturbative QCD. Transport equations with the squared amplitudes are established and solved to obtain the thermalization time of initially produced quark-gluon matter and the initial temperature of quark-gluon plasma. We find that the thermalization times of quark matter and gluon matter are different.