Isotropization and hydrodynamization in weakly coupled heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We numerically solve 2+1D effective kinetic theory of weak coupling QCD under longitudinal expansion relevant for early stages of heavy-ion collisions. We find agreement with viscous hydrodynamics and classical Yang-Mills simulations in the regimes where they are applicable. By choosing initial conditions that are motivated by color-glass-condensate framework we find that for Q=2GeV and ${\alpha }_s$=0.3 the system is approximately described by viscous hydrodynamics well before $\tau \lesssim 1.0$ fm/c.

Comments: 6 pages, 4 figures. Shortened for PRL, figs. 1 and 2 modified