Decoherence time in high energy heavy ion collisions

2005/12/31 by Berndt Müller, Berndt Muller, Andreas Schäfer +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.73.054905

published as Phys.Rev.C73:054905,2006 · Final, slightly modified version as it will be published in Phys. Rev. C

arxiv created 2006/04/09 · openalex publication_date 2006/05/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We calculate the decoherence time of the ground state wave function of a nucleus in a high energy heavy ion collision. We define this time as the decay time of the ratio Tr\phantom\rule0.3em0exD²/(Tr\phantom\rule0.3em0exD)² of traces of the density matrix D. We find that this time is smaller or equal to 1/Q_s, where the saturation scale Q_s is defined within the color glass condensate model of parton saturation. Our result supports the notion that the extremely rapid entropy production deduced for the early stage of heavy ion collisions at collider energies is to a large extent caused by the decoherence of the initial-state wave functions.

Citations

• Evolution at small x_bj: The Color Glass Condensate

Cited by

• Stress tensor and bulk viscosity in relativistic nuclear collisions
• Quantum properties of a non-Gaussian state in the large-Napproximation