Early stage thermalization via instabilities

Abstract

Due to anisotropic momentum distributions the parton system produced at the early stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions is unstable with respect to the magnetic plasma modes. The instabilities isotropize the system and thus speed up the process of its equilibration. The whole scenario of the instabilities driven isotropization is reviewed.

Comments: 23 pages, review presented at the workshop `Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement' July 3-6, 2006, Florence