arXiv · 1110.2378
Entropy Creation in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
Abstract
We review current ideas on entropy production during the different stages of a relativistic nuclear collision. This includes recent results on decoherence entropy and the entropy produced during the hydrodynamic phase by viscous effects. We start by a discussion of decoherence caused by gluon bremsstrahlung in the very first interactions of gluons from the colliding nuclei. We then present a general framework, based on the Husimi distribution function, for the calculation of entropy growth in quantum field theories, which is applicable to the early ("glasma") phase of the collision during which most of the entropy is generated. The entropy calculated from the Husimi distribution exhibits linear growth when the quantum field contains unstable modes and the growth rateis asymptotically equal to the Kolmogorov-Sina\"i (KS) entropy. We outline how the approach can be used to investigate the problem of entropy production in a relativistic heavy-ion reaction from first principles. Finally we discuss some recent results on entropy production in the strong coupling limit, as obtained from AdS/CFT duality.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Berndt Müller, Andreas Schäfer. 2011-10-11. Entropy Creation in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0218301311020459
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.