Weak-coupling techniques for the thermodynamics of the quark-gluon plasma

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in calculating the thermodynamics of the quark-gluon plasma using weak-coupling methods, suggesting a weakly coupled plasma at accessible temperatures is plausible and consistent with experimental observations.

Contribution

It presents progress in weak-coupling calculations of QCD thermodynamics and discusses implications for the nature of the quark-gluon plasma at RHIC energies.

Findings

Weak-coupling techniques can describe QGP thermodynamics at high temperatures.

A weakly coupled QGP at a few times the transition temperature is plausible.

Nonabelian plasma instabilities may enable rapid thermalization.

Abstract

We describe some of the recent progress in the calculation of thermodynamic quantities in QCD at high temperatures and densities by weak-coupling techniques and extrapolation to realistic coupling strength. We argue that a (mostly) weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma at temperatures only a few times the transition temperature is not yet ruled out by the observed fast apparent thermalization at RHIC, as nonabelian plasma instabilities might provide an efficient mechanism for fast isotropization even in a collisionless plasma.