Quantum collisions of finite-size ultrarelativistic nuclei

2001/05/31 by A. Makhlin
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.64.064904

published as Phys.Rev. C64 (2001) 064904 · 23 pages, RevTeX. New references and two figures added. Final version accepted for publication in Physical Review C

arxiv created 2001/11/14 · openalex publication_date 2001/11/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We show that the boost variable, the conjugate to the coordinate rapidity, which is associated with the center-of-mass motion, encodes the information about the finite size of colliding nuclei in a Lorentz-invariant way. The quasielastic forward color-changing scattering between the quantum boost states rapidly grows with the total energy of the collision and leads to an active breakdown of the color coherence at the earliest moments of the collision. The possible physical implications of this result are discussed.

Citations

• Wilson renormalization group for lowxphysics: Towards the high density regime
• Non-Abelian Weizsäcker-Williams field and a two-dimensional effective color charge density for a very large nucleus
• Quantum field kinetics
• Quark and gluon distributions at the earliest stage of heavy-ion collisions