Anomalous viscosity of an expanding quark-gluon plasma

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2006-06, Vol.96 (25), p.252301-252301, Article 252301
Main Authors: Asakawa, M, Bass, S A, Müller, B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
BROOKHAVEN RHIC
COLLISIONS
COLOR MODEL
COUPLING
INTERACTIONS
PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
QUARK MATTER
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.96.252301