The spectrum of fluctuations and thermalization in the little bang
| Date/Time: | Monday, 23 Jan 2012 from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm |
|---|---|
| Location: | Physics, Room 5 |
| Phone: | 515-294-1080 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
We present an ab initio approach to understanding how highly coherent QCD matter in high energy nuclear wavefunctions decoheres rapidly in the little bang of a heavy ion collision to exhibit nearly ideal hydrodynamical flow. We discuss a scenario for how thermalization occurs and argue that it may involve transient creation of a Bose-Einstein Condensate. Our approach builds concrete analogies to concepts in early universe cosmology, non-linear dynamics and the physics of ultra-cold atoms.