A real-time lattice simulation of the thermalization of a gluon plasma: first results

TL;DR

This paper presents real-time lattice simulations of gluon plasma thermalization in heavy ion collisions, extending previous SU(2) studies to SU(3), and observes early Weibel instabilities indicating thermalization processes.

Contribution

It generalizes earlier SU(2) classical Yang-Mills simulations to SU(3), providing more realistic insights into gluon plasma thermalization dynamics.

Findings

Observation of Weibel instabilities before thermalization

Calculation of chromo-electric and chromo-magnetic energy densities

Analysis of pressure ratios over time

Abstract

To achieve an understanding of the thermalization of a quark-gluon plasma, starting from QCD without using model assumptions, is a formidable task. We study the early stage dynamics of a relativistic heavy ion collision in the framework of real time simulations of classical Yang-Mills theory in a static box with the color glass condensate as initial condition. Our study generalizes a previous one by Fukushima and Gelis from SU(2) to the realistic case of SU(3). We calculate the chromo-electric and chromo-magnetic energy densities as well as the ratio of longitudinal and transverse pressure as a function of time as probes for thermalization. Our preliminary results on coarse lattices show the occurrence of Weibel instabilities prior to thermalization.