Transport properties of a charged drop in an external electric field

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transport properties of a charged droplet under an external electric field, deriving a non-equilibrium distribution function and calculating shear viscosity, with implications for quark-gluon plasma initial states.

Contribution

It introduces a new non-equilibrium distribution function for a charged droplet in an electric field and computes shear viscosity coefficients relevant to high-energy nuclear physics.

Findings

Shear viscosity coefficients are very small.

Viscosity depends on droplet expansion time and electric field strength.

Results are applicable to initial states of quark-gluon plasma.

Abstract

Transport properties of a charged droplet of weakly interacting particles in an external field are investigated. A non-equilibrium distribution function which describes a process of the droplet transverse evolution with constant entropy in an external electric field is calculated. With the help of this distribution function, shear viscosity coefficients in the transverse plane are calculated as well. They are found to be very small and depend on the time of the droplet's expansion in a hydrodynamical regime and external field value. An applicability of the results to the description of initial states of quark-gluon plasma obtained in high-energy interactions of nuclei is also discussed.