Thermalization in weakly coupled nonabelian plasmas

• Published in: The journal of high energy physics Vol. 2011; no. 12
• Main Authors: Kurkela, Aleksi, Moore, Guy D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01-12-2011; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anisotropy; Balancing; Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Elementary Particles; High energy physics; Momentum; Occupancy; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Plasmas (physics); Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Quantum Physics; Relativity Theory; String Theory; Thermalization (energy absorption); QCD; Thermal Field Theory
• ISSN: 1029-8479; 1029-8479
• DOI: 10.1007/JHEP12(2011)044

A
bstract
We investigate how relativistic, nonabelian plasmas approach equilibrium in a general context. Our treatment is entirely parametric and for small Yang-Mills coupling
α
. First we study isotropic systems with an initially nonequilibrium momentum distribution. We consider both the case of initially very high occupancy and initially very low occupancy. Then we consider systems which are anisotropic. We consider both weak anisotropy and large anisotropy, and allow the occupancy to be parametrically large or small. Writing the typical momentum of an initial excitation as
Q
and the final temperature as
T
final
, full equilibration occurs in a time
for
T
final
 > 
Q
, and
for
T
final
 < 
Q
, unless the initial system is sufficiently anisotropic and
, in which 7 case equilibration occurs somewhat faster,
.