Initial state of the QGP from perturbative QCD + saturation

Abstract

The production of the initial state of the QGP in very high-energy $AA$ collisions is discussed within the framework of perturbative QCD and saturation. The next-to-leading order computation of the transverse energy of minijets is reviewed. Saturation of parton production, conjectured to occur at a dynamically determinable perturbative scale, leads to estimates of the initial densities. The final state multiplicities are predicted by assuming an isentropic hydrodynamical further evolution. Comparison with RHIC data is shown.

Comments: 10 pages, 8 figures. Invited talk at the International Conference on Statistical QCD, August 2001, Bielefeld