Investigating thermalization of a strongly interacting non-Abelian plasma

TL;DR

This paper uses gauge/gravity duality to analyze how strongly interacting non-Abelian plasmas relax to equilibrium, examining local and nonlocal probes, and the dissociation of heavy quarkonium in out-of-equilibrium conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive study of thermalization in non-Abelian plasmas using boundary sourcing and multiple probes, providing new insights into the equilibration process.

Findings

Local and nonlocal probes reveal detailed thermalization dynamics.

Heavy quarkonium dissociation occurs during out-of-equilibrium evolution.

Comparison with viscous hydrodynamics clarifies thermalization timescales.

Abstract

Using gauge/gravity duality methods, we study the relaxation towards equilibrium of strongly interacting non-Abelian matter. We adopt boundary sourcing to drive the system out-of-equilibrium, and analyze the equilibration process through local probes (energy density and pressures) and nonlocal probes (lengths of the geodesics between two boundary points and extremal surfaces having a Wilson loop as contour on the boundary). We also investigate the real-time dissociation of the heavy quarkonium in the out-of-equilibrium plasma. Systematic comparison with the results of a geometry dual to viscous hydrodynamics sheds light on the thermalization process.