Thermalization of anisotropic quark-gluon plasma produced by decays of color flux tubes

TL;DR

This paper investigates how an anisotropic quark-gluon plasma thermalizes after decay of color flux tubes in heavy-ion collisions, using kinetic equations and relaxation-time approximation to connect viscosity with thermalization dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a kinetic model incorporating Schwinger decay rates and relaxation-time approximation to analyze plasma thermalization with varying viscosity-to-entropy ratios.

Findings

Higher viscosity delays thermalization.

Decay rates follow Schwinger formula.

Thermalization time depends on viscosity-to-entropy ratio.

Abstract

Kinetic equations are used to study thermalization of the anisotropic quark-gluon plasma produced by decays of color flux tubes possibly created at the very early stages of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The decay rates of the initial color tubes are given by the Schwinger formula, while the collision terms are taken in the relaxation-time approximation. By connecting the relaxation time with viscosity we analyze production and thermalization processes in the plasma characterized by different values of the ratio of the shear viscosity to entropy density.