Towards a fluid-dynamic description of an entire heavy-ion collision: from the colliding nuclei to the quark-gluon plasma phase

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of second-order fluid dynamics to model the entire evolution of heavy-ion collisions, from initial nuclei to quark-gluon plasma, aiming to reduce uncertainties in current models.

Contribution

It proposes a framework for describing the pre-collision state and the entire collision process using fluid dynamics, including initial conditions and entropy production.

Findings

Preliminary analysis of fluid equations of motion for collision dynamics

Discussion on entropy production during the collision process

Outline of a program to unify collision modeling with fluid theory

Abstract

The fluid-dynamical modeling of a nuclear collision at high energy usually starts shortly after the collision. A major source of uncertainty comes from the detailed modeling of the initial state. While the collision itself likely involves far-from-equilibrium dynamics, it is not excluded that a fluid theory of second order can reasonably well describe its soft features. Here we explore this possibility and discuss how the state before the collision can be described in that setup, examine the required fluid-dynamical equations of motion and study the resulting entropy production. While we do here only first steps, we outline a larger program, which could lead to a dynamical description of heavy-ion collisions where the only uncertainty lies in the thermodynamic and transport properties of quantum chromodynamics.