A formalism for anisotropic fluid dynamics is proposed. It is designed to describe boost-invariant systems with anisotropic pressure. Such systems are expected to be produced at the early stages of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, when the timescales are too short to achieve equal thermalization of transverse and longitudinal degrees of freedom. The approach is based on the energy-momentum and entropy conservation laws, and may be regarded as a minimal extension of the boost-invariant standard relativistic hydrodynamics of the perfect fluid. We show how the formalism may be used to describe the isotropization of the system (the transition from the initial state with no longitudinal pressure to the final state with equal longitudinal and transverse pressure).
Anisotropic-hydrodynamics framework is used to describe a mixture of quark and gluon fluids. The effects of quantum statistics, finite quark mass, and finite baryon number density are taken into account. The results of anisotropic hydrodynamics are compared with exact solutions of the coupled kinetic equations for quarks and gluons in the relaxation time approximation. The overall very good agreement between the hydrodynamic and kinetic-theory results is found.
Kinetic and hydrodynamic models describing early stages of relativistic heavy-ion collisions are discussed. We emphasise the role of the shear-bulk coupling for the correct determination of the time dependence of the bulk viscous pressure.
Anisotropies of hadronic distribution in nuclear collisions are used for determination of properties of the nuclear matter. At the LHC it is important to account for the contribution to the flow due to momentum transferred from hard partons to the quark-gluon plasma.
Dissipative relativistic fluid-dynamical descriptions of the extended fireball formed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions are quite successful, yet require a prescription for converting the fluid into particles. We present arguments in favour of using a locally anisotropic momentum distribution for the particles emitted from the fluid, so as to smooth out discontinuities introduced by the usual conversion prescriptions. Building on this ansatz, we investigate the effect of the asymmetry on several observables of heavy ion physics.
The recently formulated framework of anisotropic and dissipative hydrodynamics (ADHYDRO) is used to describe non-boost-invariant motion of the fluid created at the early stages of heavy-ion collisions. Very strong initial asymmetries of pressure are reduced by the entropy production processes. By the appropriate choice of the form of the entropy source we can reproduce realistic scenarios for the isotropization expected in heavy-ion collisions. Our previous results are generalized by including the realistic equation of state as the limit of the isotropization processes.
The recently developed framework of anisotropic hydrodynamics is generalized to describe the dynamics of coupled quark and gluon fluids. The quark and gluon components of the fluids are characterized by different dynamical anisotropy parameters. The dynamical equations describing such mixtures are derived from kinetic theory with the collisional kernel treated in the relaxation- time approximation allowing for different relaxation times for quarks and gluons. Baryon number conservation is enforced in the quark and anti-quark components of the fluid, but overall parton number non-conservation i…
We present VAH, a (3+1)-dimensional simulation that evolves the far-from-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions with anisotropic fluid dynamics. We solve the hydrodynamic equations on an Eulerian grid using the Kurganov-Tadmor algorithm in combination with a new adaptive Runge-Kutta method. Our numerical scheme allows us to start the simulation soon after the nuclear collision, largely avoiding the need to integrate it with a separate pre-equilibrium dynamics module. We test the code's performance by simulating on the Eulerian grid conformal and non-c…
Non-additive generalisation of relativistic anisotropic anisotropic hydrodynamics is described. In the particular case of 0+1 boost-invariant hydrodynamics additional entropy production due to non-additivity is calculated.
We introduce a new framework of highly-anisotropic hydrodynamics that includes dissipation effects. Dissipation is defined by the form of the entropy source that depends on the pressure anisotropy and vanishes for the isotropic fluid. With a simple ansatz for the entropy source obeying general physical requirements, we are led to a non-linear equation describing the time evolution of the anisotropy in purely-longitudinal boost-invariant systems. Matter that is initially highly anisotropic approaches naturally the regime of the perfect fluid. Thus, the resulting evolution agrees with the expect…
Anisotropic hydrodynamics improves upon standard dissipative fluid dynamics by treating certain large dissipative corrections non-perturbatively. Relativistic heavy-ion collisions feature two such large dissipative effects: (i) Strongly anisotropic expansion generates a large shear stress component which manifests itself in very different longitudinal and transverse pressures, especially at early times. (ii) Critical fluctuations near the quark-hadron phase transition lead to a large bulk viscous pressure on the conversion surface between hydrodynamics and a microscopic hadronic cascade descri…
Shock wave solutions in anisotropic relativistic hydrodynamics are considered. A new phenomenon of anisotropy-related angular deflection of the incident flow by the shock wave front is described. Patterns of velocity and momentum transformation by the shock wave front are described.
A simple system of coupled kinetic equations for quark and gluon anisotropic systems is solved numerically. The solutions are compared with the predictions of the anisotropic hydrodynamics describing a mixture of anisotropic fluids. We find that the solutions of the kinetic equations can be well reproduced by anisotropic hydrodynamics if the initial distribution are oblate for both quarks and gluons. On the other hand, the solutions of the kinetic equations have a different qualitative behavior from those obtained in anisotropic hydrodynamics if the initial configurations are oblate-prolate or…
A system of equations of anisotropic hydrodynamics that describes mixture of quark and gluon fluids is studied. The equations are based on the zeroth, first, and second moments of the RTA kinetic equations. Tests of this formulation are performed by comparing the results of anisotropic hydorodynamics with the exact solutions of the Boltzmann equations for a mixture of fluids in the Bjorken flow limit. One finds a very good agreement between the hydrodynamic and kinetic-theory results.
We study anisotropic fluid dynamics derived from the Boltzmann equation based on a particular choice for the anisotropic distribution function within a boost-invariant expansion of the fluid in one spatial dimension. In order to close the conservation equations we need to choose an additional moment of the Boltzmann equation. We discuss the influence of this choice of closure on the time evolution of fluid-dynamical variables and search for the best agreement to the solution of the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation-time approximation.
A system of equations for anisotropic hydrodynamics is derived that describes a mixture of anisotropic quark and gluon fluids. The consistent treatment of the zeroth, first and second moments of the kinetic equations allows us to construct a new framework with more general forms of the anisotropic phase-space distribution functions than those used before. In this way, the main difficiencies of the previous formulations of anisotropic hydrodynamics for mixtures have been overcome and the good agreement with the exact kinetic-theory results is obtained.
A new formulation of (3+1)-dimensional anisotropic hydrodynamics is presented that accounts nonperturbatively for the large longitudinal-transverse pressure anisotropy and bulk viscous pressure in heavy-ion collisions. The initialization of the anisotropic hydrodynamic stage is discussed, and a comparison to standard viscous hydrodynamics for (0+1)- dimensional Bjorken expansion is presented.
The exploration of the strong-interaction matter under extreme conditions is one of the main goals of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We provide some of the main results on the novel properties of quark-gluon plasma, with particular focus given to the strong collectivity and the color opaqueness exhibited by such hot and dense matter produced in high-energy nuclear collisions at RHIC and the LHC.
The mixture of quark and gluon fluids is studied in a one-dimensional boost-invariant setup using the set of relativistic kinetic equations treated in the relaxation time approximation. Effects of a finite quark mass, non-zero baryon number density, and quantum statistics are discussed. Comparisons between the exact kinetic-theory results and anisotropic hydrodynamics predictions are performed and a very good agreement between the two are found.
In Molnár et al. [Phys. Rev. D 93, 114025 (2016)] the equations of anisotropic dissipative fluid dynamics were obtained from the moments of the Boltzmann equation based on an expansion around an arbitrary anisotropic single-particle distribution function. In this paper we make a particular choice for this distribution function and consider the boost-invariant expansion of a fluid in one dimension. In order to close the conservation equations, we need to choose an additional moment of the Boltzmann equation. We discuss the influence of the choice of this moment on the time evolution of fluid-dy…
We report results from a multiphase transport (AMPT) model on the rapidity and system size dependence of charged hadron anisotropic flows in nuclear collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).
Fluid-dynamical equations of motion can be derived from the Boltzmann equation in terms of an expansion around a single-particle distribution function which is in local thermodynamical equilibrium, i.e., isotropic in momentum space in the rest frame of a fluid element. However, in situations where the single-particle distribution function is highly anisotropic in momentum space, such as the initial stage of heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies, such an expansion is bound to break down. Nevertheless, one can still derive a fluid-dynamical theory, called anisotropic dissipative fluid dy…
The recently introduced approach describing coupled quark and gluon anisotropic fluids is generalized to include explicitly the transitions between quarks and gluons. We study the effects of such processes on the thermalization rate of anisotropic systems. We find that the quark-gluon transitions may enhance the overall thermalization rate in the cases where the initial momentum anisotropies correspond to mixed oblate-prolate or prolate configurations. On the other hand, no effect on the thermalization rate is found in the case of oblate configurations. The observed regularities are connected …
Anisotropic flow of hadrons is studied in heavy ion collisions at SPS and RHIC energies within the microscopic quark-gluon string model. The model was found to reproduce correctly many of the flow features, e.g., the wiggle structure of direct flow of nucleons at midrapidity, or centrality, rapidity, and transverse momentum dependences of elliptic flow. Further predictions are made. The differences in the development of the anisotropic flow components are linked to the freeze-out conditions, which are quite different for baryons and mesons.
We consider directly emitted and hadronic decay photons from event-by-event hydrodynamic simulations. We compute the direct photon anisotropic flow coefficients and compare with recent experimental measurements. We find that it is crucial to include the photon multiplicity as a weighting factor in the definition of $v^γ_n$. We also investigate the sensitivity of the direct photon spectrum and elliptic flow to the theoretical uncertainty of the photon emission rate in the quark-hadron transition region and to the pre-equilibrium dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
If the matter produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions reaches thermal equilibrium, its subsequent evolution follows the laws of ideal fluid dynamics. We show that general predictions can be made on this basis alone, irrespective of the details of the hydrodynamical model. We derive several scaling rules for momentum spectra and anisotropic flow (in particular the elliptic flow, v2, and the hexadecupole flow, v4) of identified particles. Comparison with existing data is briefly discussed, and qualitative predictions are made for LHC.
We consider the time evolution of a dilute atomic Fermi gas after release from a trapping potential. A common difficulty with using fluid dynamics to study the expansion of the gas is that the theory is not applicable in the dilute corona, and that a naive treatment of the entire cloud using fluid dynamics leads to unphysical results. We propose to remedy this problem by including certain non-hydrodynamic degrees of freedom, in particular anisotropic components of the pressure tensor, in the theoretical description. We show that, using this method, it is possible to describe the crossover from…
A very intuitive description of nucleus-nucleus collision phenomena is provided by the relativistic fluid dynamics. We consider a 1+1 dimensional relativistic imperfect fluid flow to approximate the high energy heavy ion collision. The article investigates the application of the continuous symmetry group on the relativistic fluid energy-momentum tensor conservation equations in the ultrarelativistic limit $γ\rightarrow \infty$.
A spheroidal anisotropic local momentum distribution is implemented in the statistical model of hadron production. We show that this form leads to exactly the same ratios of hadronic abundances as the equilibrium distributions, if the temperature is identified with a characteristic transverse-momentum scale. Moreover, to a very good approximation the transverse-momentum spectra of hadrons are the same for isotropic and anisotropic systems, provided the size of the system at freeze-out is appropriately adjusted. We further show that this invariance may be used to improve the agreement between t…
The strategy and techniques for analyzing anisotropic flow (directed, elliptic, etc.) in relativistic nuclear collisions are presented. The emphasis is on the use of the Fourier expansion of azimuthal distributions. We present formulae relevant for this approach, and in particular, show how the event multiplicity enters into the event plane resolution. We also discuss the role of non-flow correlations and a method for introducing flow into a simulation.
We suggest the azimuthal distribution of mean transverse (radial) rapidity of the final state particles as a more direct measure of the transverse motion of the source than the standard azimuthal multiplicity distribution. Using a sample generated by the AMPT model with string melting, we demonstrate that the azimuthal amplitude of the suggested distribution characterizes the anisotropic radial flow, and coincides with the parameter of anisotropic radial rapidity extracted from a generalized blast-wave parametrization.
Focusing on the numerical aspects and accuracy we study a class of bulk viscosity driven expansion scenarios using the relativistic Navier-Stokes and truncated Israel-Stewart form of the equations of relativistic dissipative fluids in 1+1 dimensions. The numerical calculations of conservation and transport equations are performed using the numerical framework of flux corrected transport. We show that the results of the Israel-Stewart causal fluid dynamics are numerically much more stable and smoother than the results of the standard relativistic Navier-Stokes equations.
In the causal theory of relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics, there are conditions on the equation of state and other thermodynamic properties such as the second-order coefficients of a fluid that need to be satisfied to guarantee that the fluid perturbations propagate causally and obey hyperbolic equations. The second-order coefficients in the causal theory, which are the relaxation times for the dissipative degrees of freedom and coupling constants between different forms of dissipation (relaxation lengths), are presented for partonic and hadronic systems. These coefficients involves rela…
The linear stability of the homogeneous equilibrium of non-relativistic fluids with mass flux and special relativistic fluids with the absolute value of the energy vector as internal energy is investigated. It is proved that the equilibrium is asymptotically stable in both cases due to purely thermodynamic restrictions; the only requirements are the thermodynamic stability and the nonnegativity of the transport coefficients.
Relativistic non-ideal fluid dynamics is formulated in 3+1 space--time dimensions. The equations governing dissipative relativistic hydrodynamics are given in terms of the time and the 3-space quantities which correspond to those familiar from non-relativistic physics. Dissipation is accounted for by applying the causal theory of relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics. As a special case we consider a fluid without viscous/heat couplings in the causal system of transport/relaxation equations. For the study of physical systems we consider pure (1+1)-dimensional expansion in planar geometry, (1+…
We present numerical methods to solve the Israel-Stewart (IS) equations of causal relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics with bulk and shear viscosities. We then test these methods studying the Riemann problem in (1+1)-- and (2+1)-dimensional geometry. The numerical schemes investigated here are applicable to realistic (3+1)--dimensional modeling of a relativistic dissipative fluid.
