Early Time Dynamics in Heavy Ion Collisions from CGC and from AdS/CFT

Abstract

We review two different theoretical approaches to the strong interaction dynamics at the early times immediately following heavy ion collisions. One approach is based on small-coupling physics of the Color Glass Condensate (CGC). The other approach is based on Anti-de Sitter space/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence and may be applicable to describing large-coupling QCD interactions. We point out that in terms of theoretical tools the two approaches are somewhat similar: in CGC one deals with classical gluon fields produced in a nuclear shock wave collision, while in AdS/CFT one studies classical gravity in a gravitational shock wave collision. We stress, however, that the resulting physics is different: the classical gluon fields in CGC lead to a free-streaming medium produced in heavy ion collisions, while the classical gravity in the 5-dimensional AdS bulk is likely to lead to ideal hydrodynamics description of the produced medium. Also, the valence quarks in colliding nuclei in CGC continue along their light cone trajectories after the collision with very little recoil, while we show that in AdS the colliding nuclei are likely to lose most of their energy in the collision and stop.