Dynamical evolution of magnetic field in the pre-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma

Understand

High-energy heavy-ion collisions generate extremely strong magnetic field which plays a key role in a number of novel quantum phenomena in quark-gluon plasma (QGP), such as the chiral magnetic effect (CME).

• However, due to the complexity in theoretical modellings of the coupled electromagnetic fields and the QGP system, especially in the pre-equilibrium stages, the lifetime of the magnetic field in the QGP medium remains undetermined.
• We establish, for the first time, a kinetic framework to study the dynamical decay of the magnetic field in the early stages of a weakly coupled QGP by solving the coupled Boltzmann and Maxwell equations.
• We find that at late times a magnetohydrodynamical description of the coupled system emerges.