Initial conditions for relativistic heavy-ion collisions may be far from equilibrium (i.e. there are large initial contributions from the shear stress tensor and bulk pressure) but it is expected that on very short time scales the dynamics converge to a universal attractor that defines hydrodynamic behavior. Thus far, studies of this nature have only considered an idealized situation at LHC energies (high temperatures $T$ and vanishing baryon chemical potential $μ_B=0$) but, in this work, we investigate for the first time how far-from-equilibrium effects may influence experimentally driven searches for the Quantum Chromodynamic critical point at RHIC. We find that the path to the critical point is heavily influenced by far from equilibrium initial conditions where viscous effects lead to dramatically different $\left\{T,μ_B\right\}$ trajectories through the QCD phase diagram. We compare hydrodynamic equations of motion with shear and bulk coupled together at finite $μ_B$ for both DNMR and phenomenological Israel-Stewart equations of motion and discuss their influence on potential attractors at finite $μ_B$ and their corresponding $\left\{T,μ_B\right\}$ trajectories.
We study the chiral phase transition by the non-equilibrium propagation of the sigma field. A quark fluid acts as a heat bath in local thermal equilibrium and evolves fluid dynamically. We allow for dissipative processes and fluctuations since the sigma field is propagated according to a Langevin-type equation of motion. Non-equilibrium fluctuations at the first order phase transition lead to an increase in the intensity of sigma excitations.
We discuss, in this review, the existing models for the production of QGP in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions. We shall try to give a brief description of the models available for the pre-equilibrium production of QGP, ranging from soft process dominated QCD regime to the pQCD dominated regime. We also present the estimates for the initial energy density, the temperature and the thermalisation time -- available from each of these studies. Finally, we shall address the questions regarding thermalisation, color equilibration and chemical equilibration of the produced QGP in different experiment…
Theoretical understanding of the observed jet quenching measurements at RHIC and LHC is challenging in QCD because it requires understanding of parton to hadron fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD. In this paper, by using closed-time path integral formalism, we derive the gauge invariant definition of the gluon to hadron fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD which is consistent with factorization theorem in non-equilibrium QCD from first principles.
We calculate the nucleon parameters in symmetric nuclear matter employing the QCD sum rules approach. We focus on the average energy per nucleon and study the equilibrium states of the matter. We treat the matter as a relativistic system of interacting nucleons. Assuming the dependence of the nucleon mass on the light quark mass $m_q$ to be more important than that of nucleon interactions we find that the contribution of the relativistic nucleons to the scalar quark condensate can be expressed as that caused by free nucleons at rest multiplied by the density dependent factor $F(ρ)$. We demonst…
We report on recent progress in the study of the evolution of non-Gaussian cumulants of critical fluctuations. We explore the implications of non-equilibrium effects on the search for the QCD critical point.
We generalize and apply the key elements of the Kibble-Zurek framework of nonequilibrium phase transitions to study the non-equilibrium critical cumulants near the QCD critical point. We demonstrate the off-equilibrium critical cumulants are expressible as universal scaling functions. We discuss how to use off-equilibrium scaling to provide powerful model-independent guidance in searches for the QCD critical point.
Recently we have proved the NRQCD factorization in heavy quarkonium production at high energy colliders at all orders in coupling constant. In this paper we extend this to non-equilibrium QCD and prove the NRQCD factorization in heavy quarkonium production at all orders in coupling constant in non-equilibrium QCD. This proof is necessary to study heavy quarkonium production from quark gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC.
I review arguments for the existence of a critical point E in the QCD phase diagram as a function of temperature T and baryon chemical potential μ. I describe how heavy ion collision experiments at the SPS and RHIC can discover the tell-tale signatures of such a critical point, thus mapping this region of the QCD phase diagram. I contrast the different ways in which the matter produced in a heavy ion collision can be driven out of equilibrium: quenching out of equilibrium (possible, but not guaranteed, if the transition region is traversed at μ<< μ_E) vs. slowing out of equilibrium (guaranteed…
$J/ψ$ suppression/production is one of the main signature of quark-gluon plasma detection at RHIC and LHC. In order to study $j/ψ$ suppression/production in high energy heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC, one needs to prove the factorization theorem of $j/ψ$ production in non-equilibrium QCD medium, otherwise one will predict infinite cross section of $j/ψ$. In this paper we prove factorization theorem of $j/ψ$ production in non-equilibrium QCD at RHIC and LHC at all order in coupling constant.
Recently we have proved NRQCD color octet factorization of S-wave and P-wave heavy quarkonia production at all orders in coupling constant in QCD in vacuum at high energy colliders in Eur. Phys. J. C76 (2016) 448 and in arXiv:1807.04722 [hep-ph] respectively. In this paper we extend this to prove NRQCD color octet factorization of P-wave heavy quarkonium production in non-equilibrium QCD at RHIC and LHC at all orders in coupling constant. This proof is necessary to study the quark-gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC.
The momentum distribution of particle production in heavy-ion collisions encodes information about thermalization processes in the early-stage quark-gluon plasma. We use kinetic theory to study the far-from-equilibrium evolution of an expanding plasma with an anisotropic momentum-space distribution. We identify slow and fast degrees of freedom in the far-from-equilibrium plasma from the evolution of moments of this distribution. At late times, the slow modes correspond to hydrodynamic degrees of freedom and are naturally gapped from the fast modes by the inverse of the relaxation time, $τ_R^{-…
In this paper we implement Schwinger-Keldysh closed-time path integral formalism in non-equilibrium QCD to the definition of Collins-Soper fragmentation function. We consider a high p_T parton in QCD medium at initial time t_0 with arbitrary non-equilibrium (non-isotropic) distribution function f(\vec{p}) fragmenting to hadron. We formulate parton to hadron fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD in the light-cone quantization formalism. It may be possible to include final state interactions with the medium via modification of the Wilson lines in this definition of the non-equilibrium fr…
The $Q^2$ evolution of fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD by using DGLAP evolution equation may be necessary to study hadron formation from quark-gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC. In this paper we study splitting functions in non-equilibrium QCD by using Schwinger-Keldysh closed-time path integral formalism. For quarks and gluons with arbitrary non-equilibrium distribution functions $f_q({\vec p})$ and $f_g({\vec p})$, we derive expressions for quark and gluon splitting functions in non-equilibrium QCD at leading order in $α_s$. We make a comparison of these splitting functions with tha…
In this paper we prove factorization of fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD by using Schwinger-Keldysh closed-time path integral formalism. We use the background field method of QCD in a pure gauge in path integral approach to prove factorization of fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD. Our proof is valid in any arbitrary gauge fixing parameter $α$. This may be relevant to study hadron production from quark-gluon plasma at high energy heavy-ion colliders at RHIC and LHC.
Recently we have proved the factorization of NRQCD S-wave heavy quarkonium production at all orders in coupling constant. In this paper we extend this to prove the factorization of infrared divergences in $χ_{cJ}$ production from color singlet $c{\bar c}$ pair in non-equilibrium QCD at RHIC and LHC at all orders in coupling constant. This can be relevant to study the quark-gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC.
Exploiting the universality between the QCD critical point and the three dimensional Ising model, closed form expressions derived (arXiv:1506.00645 ) for non-equilibrium critical cumulants on the crossover side of the critical point reveal that they can differ both in magnitude and sign from equilibrium expectations. We demonstrate here that key elements of the Kibble-Zurek framework of non-equilibrium phase transitions can be employed to describe the dynamics of these critical cumulants. Our results suggest that observables sensitive to critical dynamics in heavy-ion collisions should be expr…
By using gravity/gauge correspondence, we employ an Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton model to compute the equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium properties of a hot and baryon rich strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma. The family of 5-dimensional holographic black holes, which are constrained to mimic the lattice QCD equation of state at zero density, is used to investigate the temperature and baryon chemical potential dependence of the equation of state. We also obtained the baryon charge conductivity, and the bulk and shear viscosities with a particular focus on the behavior of these observables on top o…
We review and examine in detail recent developments regarding the question of the nucleon mass decomposition. We discuss in particular the virial theorem in quantum field theory and its implications for the nucleon mass decomposition and mechanical equilibrium. We reconsider the renormalization of the QCD energy-momentum tensor in minimal-subtraction-type schemes and the physical interpretation of its components, as well as the role played by the trace anomaly and Poincaré symmetry. We also study the concept of "quantum anomalous energy" proposed in some works as a new contribution to the nucl…
We review the transport properties of the strongly interacting quark-gluon plasma (QGP) created in heavy-ion collisions at ultrarelativistic energies, i.e. out-of equilibrium, and compare them to the equilibrium properties. The description of the strongly interacting (non-perturbative) QGP in equilibrium is based on the effective propagators and couplings from the Dynamical QuasiParticle Model (DQPM) that is matched to reproduce the equation-of-state of the partonic system above the deconfinement temperature $T_c$ from lattice QCD. We study the transport coefficients such as the ratio of shear…
We establish the existence of a far-from-equilibrium attractor in weakly-coupled gauge theory undergoing one-dimensional Bjorken expansion. We demonstrate that the resulting far-from-equilibrium evolution is insensitive to certain features of the initial condition, including both the initial momentum-space anisotropy and initial occupancy. We find that this insensitivity extends beyond the energy-momentum tensor to the detailed form of the one-particle distribution function. Based on our results, we assess different procedures for reconstructing the full one-particle distribution function from…
I review recent new lattice QCD results on a few selected topics which are relevant to the heavy ion physics community. Special emphasis is put on the QCD phase diagram towards the chiral limit and at nonzero baryon density as well as the fate of quarkonia and heavy quark drag coefficients.
In this work, we study the lensing effect of the QCD critical point on hydrodynamic trajectories, and its consequences on the net-proton kurtosis $κ_4$. Including critical behavior by means of the BEST Collaboration equation of state (EoS), we first consider a scenario in equilibrium, then compare with hydrodynamic 0+1D simulations with Bjorken expansion, including both shear and bulk viscous terms. We find that, both in and out-of-equilibrium, the size and shape of the critical region directly affect if the signal will survive through the dynamical evolution.
We study thermalization, hydrodynamization, and chemical equilibration in out-of-equilibrium Quark-Gluon Plasma starting from various initial conditions using QCD effective kinetic theory, valid at weak coupling. In non-expanding systems gauge bosons rapidly lose information of the initial state and achieve kinetic equilibrium among themselves, while fermions approach the equilibrium distribution only at later time. In systems undergoing rapid longitudinal expansion, both gluons and quarks are kept away from equilibrium by the expansion, but the evolution is well described by fluid dynamics ev…
We apply the closed-time path integral formalism to study the medium effects of non-equilibrium gluon matter. We derive the medium modified resummed gluon propagator to the one loop level in non-equilibrium in the covariant gauge. The gluon propagator we derive can be used to remove the infrared divergences in the secondary parton collisions to study thermalization of minijet parton plasma at RHIC and LHC.
We employ a non-equilibrium Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) kinetic description to study the kinetic and chemical equilibration of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) at weak coupling. Based on our numerical framework, which explicitly includes all leading order processes involving light flavor degrees of freedom, we investigate the thermalization process of homogeneous and isotropic plasmas far-from equilibrium and determine the relevant time scales for kinetic and chemical equilibration. We further simulate the longitudinally expanding pre-equilibrium plasma created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion coll…
A precise lattice determination of the equation of state in SU(3) Yang-Mills theory is carried out by means of a simulation algorithm, based on Jarzynski's theorem, that allows one to compute physical quantities in thermodynamic equilibrium, by driving the field configurations of the system out of equilibrium. The physical results and the computational efficiency of the algorithm are compared with other state-of-the-art lattice calculations, and the extension to full QCD with dynamical fermions and to other observables is discussed.
By linearly parameterizing the QCD Landau free energy near the critical point in the baryon chemical potential and temperature plane, we study the fluctuations of the QCD chiral order parameter field (the $σ$ field) in the equilibrium case and dynamical phase transition, respectively. By setting the system size to the typical size of the QGP fireball ($\approx 10^3$ fm$^3$), we show that in the equilibrium case, the discontinuity of the order parameter in the first order phase transition region is replaced by smooth crossover, and the corresponding fluctuations are broadened. Meanwhile, the qu…
The non-Gaussian fluctuations of baryon density are sensitive to the presence of the conjectured QCD critical point. Their observational consequences are crucial for the ongoing experimental search for this critical point through the beam energy scan program at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). In the expanding fireball created in a heavy-ion collision, critical fluctuations would inescapably fall out of equilibrium, and require a systematic description within a dynamical framework. In this paper, we employ newly developed effective field theory (EFT) for fluctuating hydrodynamics to stu…
We establish the existence of a far-from-equilibrium attractor in weakly-coupled gauge theory undergoing 0+1d Bjorken expansion which goes beyond the energy-momentum tensor to the detailed form of the one-particle distribution function. We then demonstrate that the dynamics can be re-scaled at intermediate times and represented by universal exponents. Finally, we assess different procedures for reconstructing the full one-particle distribution function from the energy-momentum tensor along the attractor and discuss implications for the freeze-out procedure used in the phenomenological analysis…
We study the far-off-equilibrium dynamics of a Bjorken expanding non-conformal system within kinetic theory and hydrodynamics. We show that, in contrast to the conformal case, neither shear nor bulk viscous pressure relax quickly to a non-equilibrium attractor. In kinetic theory an early-time, far-from-equilibrium attractor exists for the scaled longitudinal pressure, driven by the rapid longitudinal expansion of the medium. Second-order dissipative hydrodynamics fails to accurately describe this attractor, but a modified anisotropic hydrodynamic formulation reproduces it and provides excellen…
Infrared divergences from the exchange of dynamically screened magnetic gluons (photons) lead to the breakdown of the Fermi liquid description of the {\em normal} state of cold and dense QCD and QED. We implement a resummation of these divergences via the renormalization group to obtain the spectral density, dispersion relation, widths and wave function renormalization of single quasiparticles near the Fermi surface. We find that all feature scaling with anomalous dimensions: $ω_p({k}) \propto |k-k_F|^{\frac{1}{1-2λ}} ~ ; ~ Γ(k) \propto |k-k_F|^{\frac{1}{1-2λ}} ~;~ Z_p({k}) \propto |k-k_F|^{\f…
Relativistic collisions of light on heavy ions (p+Au at sqrt(s)=7.7 GeV, p+Au, d+Au,3He+Au at sqrt(s)=62.4 GeV and 200 GeV and p+Pb, 3He+Pb at sqrt(s)=5.02 TeV) are simulated using "superSONIC", a model that includes pre-equilibrium flow, viscous hydrodynamics and a hadronic cascade afterburner. Even though these systems have strong gradients and only consist of at most a few tens of charged particles per unit rapidity, one finds evidence that a hydrodynamic description applies to these systems. Based on these simulations, the presence of a triangular flow component in d+Au collisions at sqrt(…
In heavy-ion collisions, the quark-gluon plasma is produced far from equilibrium. This regime is currently inaccessible by quantum chromodynamics (QCD) computations. We calculate shear transport and entropy far from equilibrium in a holographic model, defining a time-dependent ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density, $η/s$. Large deviations of up to 60% from its near-equilibrium value, $1/4π$, are found for realistic situations at the Large Hadron Collider. We predict the far-from-equilibrium time-dependence of $η/s$ to substantially affect the evolution of the QCD plasma and to impact the…
Using the Schwinger-Keldysh closed time path integral formalism we show that the magnetic screening mass in QED and QCD at one loop level is non-zero as long as the single particle distribution function f(\vec{k}) is non-isotropic, {i.e.} it depends on the direction of the momentum. For isotropic distribution functions such as those corresponding to thermal equilibrium the magnetic screening mass at one loop level is found to be zero which is consistent with finite temperature field theory. The non-zero magnetic screening mass in non-isotropic non-equlibrium situations has fundamental importan…
Isolated quantum systems in extreme conditions can exhibit unusually large occupancies per mode. This over-population gives rise to new universality classes of many-body systems far from equilibrium. We present theoretical evidence that important aspects of non-Abelian plasmas in the ultra-relativistic limit admit a dual description in terms of a Bose condensed scalar field theory.
It is argued that, in heavy ion collisions, thermal dileptons are good probes of the transport properties of the medium created in such events, and also of its early-time dynamics, usually inaccessible to hadronic observables. In this work we show that electromagnetic azimuthal momentum anisotropies do not only display a sensitivity to the shear relaxation time and to the initial shear-stress tensor profile, but also to the temperature dependence of the shear viscosity coefficient.
Upcoming experimental programs will look for signatures of a possible critical point in the QCD phase diagram in fluctuation observables. To understand and predict these signatures, one must account for the fact that the dynamics of any critical fluctuations must be out-of-equilibrium: because of critical slowing down, the fluctuations cannot stay in equilibrium as the droplet of QGP produced in a collision expands and cools. Furthermore, their out-of-equilibrium dynamics must also influence the hydrodynamic evolution of the cooling droplet. The recently developed Hydro+ formalism allows for a…
The role of slow out of equilibrium modes (OEM), introduced to extend the validity of hydrodynamics near the QCD critical point on the power spectrum of dynamical density fluctuations has been studied. We have used the equation of motion of slow modes for the situation when the extensive nature of thermodynamics is not altered due to the introduction of OEM. We find that the extensivity condition puts an extra constraint on the coupling of OEM with the four divergence of velocity. The dynamic structure factor (Snn) in presence of the OEM shows four Lorentzian peaks asymmetrically positioned ab…
I sketch how long wavelength modes of the pion field can be amplified during the QCD phase transition. If nature had been kinder, and had made the pion mass significantly less than the critical temperature for the transition, then this phenomenon would have characterized the transition in thermal equilibrium. Instead, these long wavelength oscillations of the orientation of the chiral condensate can only arise out of equilibrium. There is a simple non-equilibrium mechanism, plausibly operational during heavy ion collisions, which naturally amplifies these oscillations. The characteristic signa…
Using gauge/gravity duality, we study emission and absorption rates of scalar quanta from far-from-equilibrium N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma. By comparing the emission and absorption rates to expectations from the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem, we study how the spectrum thermalizes and how the thermalization time depends on the four momentum of the emitted quanta.
Prescaling is a far-from-equilibrium phenomenon which describes the rapid establishment of a universal scaling form of distributions much before the universal values of their scaling exponents are realized. We consider the example of the spatio-temporal evolution of the quark-gluon plasma explored in heavy-ion collisions at sufficiently high energies. Solving QCD kinetic theory with elastic and inelastic processes, we demonstrate that the gluon and quark distributions very quickly adapt a self-similar scaling form, which is independent of initial condition details and system parameters. The dy…
A quantum-kinetic formulation of the dynamical evolution of a high-energy non-equilibrium gluon system at finite density is developed, to study the interplay between quantum fluctuations of high-momentum (hard) gluons and the low-momentum (soft) mean color-field that is induced by the collective motion of the hard particles. From the exact field-equations of motion of QCD, a self-consistent set of approximate quantum-kinetic equations are derived by separating hard and soft dynamics and choosing a convenient axial-type gauge. This set of master equations describes the momentum space evolution …
We employ an Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton (EMD) holographic model, which is known to be in good agreement with lattice results for the QCD equation of state with $(2+1)$ flavors and physical quark masses, to investigate the temperature and baryon chemical potential dependence of the susceptibilities, conductivities, and diffusion coefficients associated with baryon, electric, and strangeness conserved charges. We also determine how the bulk and shear viscosities of the plasma vary in the plane of temperature and baryon chemical potential. The diffusion of conserved charges and the hydrodynamic vis…
The QCD phase diagram may feature a critical end point at a temperature T and baryon chemical potential $μ$ which is accessible in heavy ion collisions. The universal long wavelength fluctuations which develop near this Ising critical point result in experimental signatures which can be used to find the critical point. The magnitude of the observed effects depends on how large the correlation length $ξ$ becomes. Because the matter created in a heavy ion collision cools through the critical region of the phase diagram in a finite time, critical slowing down limits the growth of $ξ$, preventing …
We study the energy loss of a heavy quark propagating through the matter produced in the collision of two sheets of energy [1]. Even though this matter is initially far-from-equilibrium we find that, when written in terms of the energy density, the equilibrium expression for heavy quark energy loss describes most qualitative features of our results well. At later times, once a plasma described by viscous hydrodynamics has formed, the equilibrium expression describes the heavy quark energy loss quantitatively. In addition to the drag force that makes it lose energy, a quark moving through the o…
We explore the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of the Quark-Gluon Plasma at zero and finite net-baryon density based on an effective kinetic theory of Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD). By investigating the isotropization of the longitudinal pressure, we determine the relevant time and temperature scales for the onset of viscous hydrodynamics, and quantify the dependence on the chemical composition of the QGP. By extrapolating our results to realistic coupling strength, we discuss phenomenological consequences regarding the role of the pre-equilibrium phase at different collision energies.
We compute analytically the anisotropic flow in an expanding mixture of several species of relativistic massive particles. We find that a single collision per particle in average already leads to sizable elliptic flow, with mass ordering between the species.
Fluid dynamics is traditionally thought to apply only to systems near local equilibrium. In this case, the effective theory of fluid dynamics can be constructed as a gradient series. Recent applications of resurgence suggest that this gradient series diverges, but can be Borel-resummed, giving rise to a hydrodynamic attractor solution which is well defined even for large gradients. Arbitrary initial data quickly approaches this attractor via non-hydrodynamic mode decay. This suggests the existence of a new theory of far-from-equilibrium fluid dynamics. In this work, the framework of fluid dyna…
New constraints are found that must necessarily hold for Israel-Stewart-like theories of fluid dynamics to be causal far away from equilibrium. Conditions that are sufficient to ensure causality, local existence, and uniqueness of solutions in these theories are also presented. Our results hold in the full nonlinear regime, taking into account bulk and shear viscosities (at zero chemical potential), without any simplifying symmetry or near-equilibrium assumptions. Our findings provide fundamental constraints on the magnitude of viscous corrections in fluid dynamics far from equilibrium.
