Decoherence time in high energy heavy ion collisions

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 TrD2/TrD)2 of traces of the density matrix D. We find that this time is smaller or equal to 1/Qs, where the saturation scale Qs 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. © 2006 The American Physical Society.

Duke Scholars

Author Berndt Mueller Physics