Studies of parton thermalization at RHIC

We consider the evolution of a parton system which is formed in the central region just after a relativistic heavy ion collision. The parton consists of mostly gluons, minijets, which are produced by elastic scattering between constituent partons of the colliding nuclei. We assume that the system can be described by a semi-classical Boltzmann transport equation, which we solve by means of the test particle Monte Carlo method including retardation. The partons proliferate via secondary radiative gg → ggg processes until the thermalization is reached for some assumptions. The extended system is thermalized at about t = 1.6 fm c-1 with T = 570 MeV and remains in kinetic equilibrium for about 2 fm c-1 with breaking temperature T = 360 MeV in the rapidity central region.

Duke Scholars

Author Berndt Mueller Physics