[Submitted on 16 Dec 2015] (cross-list from hep-th)
Weak and strong coupling equilibration in nonabelian gauge theories
Liam Keegan🇨🇭 · Aleksi Kurkela🇨🇭 · Paul Romatschke🇺🇸 · Wilke van der Schee🇺🇸 · Yan Zhu🇫🇮
We present a direct comparison studying equilibration through kinetic theory at weak coupling and through holography at strong coupling in the same set-up. The set-up starts with a homogeneous thermal state, which then smoothly transitions through an out-of-equilibrium phase to an expanding system undergoing boost-invariant flow. This first apples-to-apples comparison of equilibration provides a benchmark for similar equilibration processes in heavy-ion collisions, where the equilibration mechanism is still under debate. We find that results at weak and strong coupling can be smoothly connected by simple, empirical power-laws for the viscosity, equilibration time and entropy production of the system.
- Comments:
- 24 pages, 9 figures
- Subjects:
- High Energy Physics — Theory (hep-th); High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
- arXiv:
- 1512.05347 [pdf]