HEAVY ION COLLISIONS AND NEW FORMS OF MATTER Page: 4 of 9
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Z=4t t ZI xa, T:
- t PerfeCt Fluid
Quark Gluan Plasma -+ Radronixtion
!l- .1 1 10ree~
Glasma -+ Density Fluctuations, Thermalization
t-0.'- ltmk/
Event horizon
Initial Singularity -+ Quantum Fluctimutlnns
Initial Nuclei as CGC - Coherent, High-densiy Gluons
FIGURE 1. A schematic picture of the evolution of matter produced in the heavy ion collisions.
THE INITIAL WAVEFUNCTION
In the leftmost part of Fig. 2, I show the various Fock space components for a baryon
wavefunction. At low energies, the dominant states for physical processes have three
quarks and a few gluons. In high energy collisions, many particles are produced. These
ultimately arise from components of the hadron wavefunction which have many gluons
in them. These components make a gluon wall of longitudinal extent of 1 /AQCD. The
density of gluons in the transverse plane grows as the energy increases, as is also shown
Fig. 2
Baryon: (. Q20 eV
* quafk Q 000ev
3 quarks 1 xO(x+Q2)
gluon
5 GeV"
3 quarks and
lots of gluons
1&t 13 1O ItT x
FIGURE 2. The leftmost figure on this slide illustrates the wavefunction for a gluon as a function of
energy. The rightmost figure illustrates the experimentally measured gluon distribution functions as a
function of x.
These gluons must become very tightly packed together. They form a high density,
highly coherent condensate of gluons, the Color Glass Condensate (CGC).[1]-[3] Be-
cause the typical separation of gluons is small, at high enough energy as < 1, and
the system is weakly coupled. Due to the coherence, it is also strongly interacting. An
example of coherence greatly amplifying a very weak interaction is given by gravity:
The intrinsic strength of the gravitational force is very small, but due to the coherent
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McLerran, L. HEAVY ION COLLISIONS AND NEW FORMS OF MATTER, article, July 2, 2007; United States. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc888460/m1/4/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.