Pre-hydrodynamic evolution in large and small systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how pre-hydrodynamic evolution affects final observables in small and large collision systems, emphasizing the importance of non-conformal modeling for accurate heavy-ion collision analysis.

Contribution

It demonstrates the significance of non-conformal pre-equilibrium dynamics in small systems and proposes a free-streaming approach to improve modeling accuracy.

Findings

Pre-hydrodynamic effects are more pronounced in small systems.

Breaking conformal invariance reduces contamination of final observables.

Pre-equilibrium duration significantly impacts final-state observables.

Abstract

We extend our previous investigation of the effects of pre-hydrodynamic evolution on final-state observables in heavy-ion collisions to smaller systems. We use a state-of-the-art hybrid model for the numerical simulations with optimal parameters obtained from a previous Bayesian study. By studying p-Pb collisions, we find that the effects due to the assumption of a conformal evolution in the pre-hydrodynamical stage are even more important in small systems. We also show that this effect depends on the time duration of the pre-equilibrium stage, which is further enhanced in small systems. Finally, we show that the recent proposal of a free-streaming with subluminal velocity for the pre-equilibrium stage, thus effectively breaking conformal invariance, can alleviate the contamination of final state observables. Our study further reinforces the need for moving beyond conformal approaches in pre-equilibrium dynamics modeling, especially when extracting transport coefficients from hybrid models in the high-precision era of heavy-ion collisions.