3-D structure of the Glasma initial state -- Breaking boost-invariance by collisions of extended shock waves in classical Yang-Mills theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates the 3D dynamics of classical Yang-Mills fields during high-energy nuclear collisions, revealing boost invariance violations and connecting longitudinal fluctuations to parton distribution characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation of 3+1 D Yang-Mills dynamics with extended nuclei, analyzing boost invariance violations and linking color charge fluctuations to parton distributions.

Findings

Violations of boost invariance depend on nuclear thickness

Longitudinal fluctuations influence rapidity profiles

A model connecting color charge fluctuations to parton distributions

Abstract

We simulate the 3+1 D classical Yang-Mills dynamics of the collisions of longitudinally extended nuclei, described by eikonal color charges in the Color Glass Condensate framework. By varying the longitudinal thickness of the colliding nuclei, we discuss the violations of boost invariance and explore how the boost invariant high-energy limit is approached. Subsequently, we develop a more realistic model of the three dimensional color charge distributions that connects longitudinal and transverse fluctuations to the $x$ and $k_\bot$ dependence of transverse momentum dependent parton distributions, and explore the resulting rapidity profiles and their longitudinal fluctuations.