3-8 November 2013
Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
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From full stopping to transparency in a holographic model of heavy ion collisions

4 Nov 2013, 17:40
20m
Garden Route (Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study)

Garden Route

Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study

Oral Initial State and Proton-Nucleus Collision Phenomena Initial State and Proton-Nucleus Collision Phenomena

Speaker

Dr Jorge Casalderrey-Solana (Universitat de Barcelona)

Description

We numerically simulate planar shock wave collisions in anti-de Sitter space as a model for heavy ion collisions of large nuclei. We uncover a cross-over between two different dynamical regimes as a function of the collision energy. At low energies the shocks first stop and then explode in a manner approximately described by hydrodynamics, in close similarity with the Landau model. At high energies the receding fragments move outwards at the speed of light, with a region of negative energy density and negative longitudinal pressure trailing behind them. The rapidity distribution of the energy density at late times around mid-rapidity is not approximately boost-invariant but Gaussian, albeit with a width that increases with the collision energy.

Keywords

AdS/CFT, Initial state, Thermalization, out-of-equilibrium, hydrodynamic flow

Primary authors

Prof. David Mateos (ICREA & Universitat de Barcelona) Dr Jorge Casalderrey-Solana (Universitat de Barcelona) Dr Michal Heller (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Mr Wilke van der Schee (Utrecht University)

Presentation Materials