Decoherence and Entropy Production in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions

Understand

Short thermalization times of less than 1 fm/c for quark and gluon matter have been suggested by recent experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).

• It has been difficult to justify this rapid thermalization in first-principle calculations based on perturbation theory or the color glass condensate picture.
• Here, we address the related question of the decoherence of the gluon field, which is a necessary component of thermalization.
• We present a simplified leading-order computation of the decoherence time of a gluon ensemble subject to an incoming flux of Weizsacker-Williams gluons.