Onset of cavitation in the quark-gluon plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates the conditions under which cavitation occurs in the quark-gluon plasma, providing estimates for the critical bulk viscosity and implications for hadronization in QCD.

Contribution

It offers a calculation of the critical bulk viscosity for cavitation onset in quark-gluon plasma using velocity gradients from heavy-ion collision models.

Findings

Critical bulk viscosity threshold identified for cavitation.

Experimental data constrains bulk viscosity in quark-gluon plasma.

Bubble formation aligns with hadronization expectations in low-temperature QCD.

Abstract

We study the onset of bubble formation (cavitation) in the quark-gluon plasma as a result of the reduction of the effective pressure from bulk-viscous corrections. By calculating velocity gradients in typical models for quark-gluon plasma evolution in heavy-ion collisions, we obtain results for the critical bulk viscosity above which cavitation occurs. Since present experimental data for heavy-ion collisions seems inconsistent with the presence of bubbles above the phase transition temperature of QCD, our results may be interpreted as an upper limit of the bulk viscosity in nature. Our results indicate that bubble formation is consistent with the expectation of hadronisation in low-temperature QCD.