Hydrodynamic attractors in heavy ion collisions: a review

Abstract

A review of the recent progress of relativistic hydrodynamic attractors is presented, with a focus on applications in heavy ion collisions and the quark gluon plasma. Pedagogical introductions to the effective descriptions relevant for attractors in high energy physics, namely hydrodynamics, holography and kinetic theory, are followed by highlights of some recent advances.

Comments: 46 pages, 8 figures. Invited review article for EPJ C special issue "Frontiers in Holographic Duality." v2: added a discussion on non-conformal systems and an appendix of useful abbreviations, references updated, typos corrected. Version accepted for publication