Electromagnetic field evolution in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Understand

The hadron string dynamics (HSD) model is generalized to include the creation and evolution of retarded electromagnetic fields as well as the influence of the magnetic and electric fields on the quasiparticle propagation.

• The time-space structure of the fields is analyzed in detail for non-central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$200 GeV.
• It is shown that the created magnetic field is highly inhomogeneous but in the central region of the overlapping nuclei it changes relatively weakly in the transverse direction.
• For the impact parameter $b=$10 fm the maximal magnetic field - perpendicularly to the reaction plane - is obtained of order $eB_y/m_\pi^2\sim$5 for a very short time $\sim$ 0.2 fm/c, which roughly corresponds to the time of a maximal overlap of the colliding nuclei.