Holography and off-center collisions of localized shock waves

TL;DR

This paper uses numerical holography to simulate off-center collisions of localized energy distributions in a strongly coupled gauge theory, providing insights into the early dynamics of heavy ion collisions.

Contribution

It presents a detailed gravitational simulation of off-center shock wave collisions without symmetry restrictions, advancing understanding of heavy ion collision dynamics in holography.

Findings

Development of transverse radial flow in collisions

Insights into early stages of heavy ion collisions

Simulation of non-zero impact parameter collisions

Abstract

Using numerical holography, we study the collision, at non-zero impact parameter, of bounded, localized distributions of energy density chosen to mimic relativistic heavy ion collisions, in strongly coupled N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Both longitudinal and transverse dynamics in the dual field theory are properly described. Using the gravitational description we solve 5D Einstein equations, without dimensionality reducing symmetry restrictions, to find the asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetime geometry. Implications of our results on the understanding of early stages of heavy ion collisions, including the development of transverse radial flow, are discussed.