Published June 30, 2006 | Version v1
Journal article

Anomalous Viscosity of an Expanding Quark-Gluon Plasma

  • 1. Department of Physics, Osaka University, Toyonaka 560-0043 (Japan)
  • 2. Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708 (United States)

Description

We argue that an expanding quark-gluon plasma has an anomalous viscosity, which arises from interactions with dynamically generated color fields. We derive an expression for the anomalous viscosity in the turbulent plasma domain and apply it to the hydrodynamic expansion phase, when the quark-gluon plasma is near equilibrium. The anomalous viscosity dominates over the collisional viscosity for weak coupling and not too late times. This effect may provide an explanation for the apparent 'nearly perfect' liquidity of the matter produced in nuclear collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider without the assumption that it is a strongly coupled state

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
96
Journal Issue
25
Journal Page Range
p. 252301-252301.4
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTAO

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
37081557
Subject category
S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS;
Descriptors DEI
BROOKHAVEN RHIC; COLLISIONS; COLOR MODEL; COUPLING; INTERACTIONS; QUARK MATTER
Descriptors DEC
ACCELERATORS; COMPOSITE MODELS; HEAVY ION ACCELERATORS; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; MATTER; PARTICLE MODELS; QUARK MODEL; STORAGE RINGS

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2006 The American Physical Society