Initial State Quantum Fluctuations in the Little Bang

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent theoretical advances in understanding initial quantum fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions, highlighting their role in early dynamics, thermalization, and experimental data interpretation at RHIC and LHC.

Contribution

It provides an ab-initio theoretical framework for initial state fluctuations, emphasizing their significance in modeling non-equilibrium dynamics and experimental phenomena.

Findings

Quantum fluctuations significantly influence initial conditions.

Fluctuations impact thermalization and early-time evolution.

Enhanced understanding of experimental data from RHIC and LHC.

Abstract

We review recent developments in the ab-initio theoretical description of the initial state in heavy-ion collisions. We emphasize the importance of fluctuations, both for the phenomenological description of experimental data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and the theoretical understanding of the non-equilibrium early time dynamics and thermalization of the medium.