A key ingredient of hydrodynamical modeling of relativistic heavy ion collisions is thermal initial conditions, an input that is the consequence of a pre-thermal dynamics which is not completely understood yet. In the paper we employ a recently devel
oped energy-momentum transport model of the pre-thermal stage to study influence of the alternative initial states in nucleus-nucleus collisions on flow and energy density distributions of the matter at the starting time of hydrodynamics. In particular, the dependence of the results on isotropic and anisotropic initial states is analyzed. It is found that at the thermalization time the transverse flow is larger and the maximal energy density is higher for the longitudinally squeezed initial momentum distributions. The results are also sensitive to the relaxation time parameter, equation of state at the thermalization time, and transverse profile of initial energy density distribution: Gaussian approximation, Glauber Monte Carlo profiles, etc. Also, test results ensure that the numerical code based on the energy-momentum transport model is capable of providing both averaged and fluctuating initial conditions for the hydrodynamic simulations of relativistic nuclear collisions.
Despite the fact that a system created in relativistic heavy ion collisions is an isolated quantum system, which cannot increase its entropy in the course of unitary quantum evolution, hydrodynamical analysis of experimental data seems to indicate th
at the matter formed in the collisions is thermalized very quickly. Based on common consideration of hydrodynamics as an effective theory in the domain of slow- and long-length modes, we discuss the physical mechanisms responsible for the decoherence and emergence of the hydrodynamic behavior in such collisions, and demonstrate how such physical mechanisms work in the case of the scalar field model. We obtain the evolution equation for the Wigner function of a long-wavelength subsystem that describes its decoherence, isotropization, and approach to thermal equilibrium induced by interaction with short-wavelength modes. Our analysis supports the idea that decoherence, quantum-to-classical transition and thermalization in isolated quantum systems are attributed to the experimental context, and are related to a particular procedure of decomposition of the whole quantum system into relevant and irrelevant from an observational viewpoint subsystems.
A simple model of nonfemtoscopic particle correlations in proton-proton collisions is proposed. The model takes into account correlations induced by the conservation laws as well as correlations induced by minijets. It reproduces well the two-pion no
nfemtoscopic correlations of like-sign and unlike-sign pions in proton-proton collision events at $sqrt{s} = 900$ GeV analyzed by the ALICE Collaboration. We also argue that similar nonfemtoscopic correlations can appear in the hydrodynamic picture with event-by-event fluctuating nonsymmetric initial conditions that are typically associated with nonzero higher-order flow harmonics.
A simple approach is proposed allowing actual calculations of the preequilibrium dynamics in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions to be performed for a far-from-equilibrium initial state. The method is based on the phenomenological macroscopic equa
tions that describe the relaxation dynamics of the energy-momentum tensor and are motivated by Boltzmann kinetics in the relaxation-time approximation. It gives the possibility to match smoothly a nonthermal initial state to the hydrodynamics of the quark gluon plasma. The model contains two parameters, the duration of the prehydrodynamic stage and the initial value of the relaxation-time parameter, and allows one to assess the energy-momentum tensor at a supposed time of initialization of the hydrodynamics.
We analyze the transverse momentum distribution of $J/psi$ mesons produced in Au + Au collisions at the top RHIC energy within a blast-wave model that accounts for a possible inhomogeneity of the charmonium distribution and/or flow fluctuations. The
results imply that the transverse momentum spectra of$J/psi$, $phi$ and $Omega$ hadrons measured at the RHIC can be described well if kinetic freeze-out takes place just after chemical freeze-out for these particles.
The problem of spectra formation in hydrodynamic approach to A+A collisions is considered within the Boltzmann equations. It is shown analytically and illustrated by numerical calculations that the particle momentum spectra can be presented in the Co
oper-Frye form despite freeze-out is not sharp and has the finite temporal width. The latter is equal to the inverse of the particle collision rate at points $(t_{sigma}({bf r},p),{bf r})$ of the maximal emission at a fixed momentum $p$. The set of these points forms the hypersurfaces $t_sigma({bf r},p)$ which strongly depend on the values of $p$ and typically do not enclose completely the initially dense matter. This is an important difference from the standard Cooper-Frye prescription (CFp), with a common freeze-out hypersurface for all $p$, that affects significantly the predicted spectra. Also, the well known problem of CFp as for negative contributions to the spectra from non-space-like parts of the freeze-out hypersurface is naturally eliminated in this improved prescription.
We develop a combined hydro-kinetic approach which incorporates a hydrodynamical expansion of the systems formed in textit{A}+textit{A} collisions and their dynamical decoupling described by escape probabilities. The method corresponds to a generaliz
ed relaxation time ($tau_{text{rel}}$) approximation for the Boltzmann equation applied to inhomogeneous expanding systems; at small $tau_{text{rel}}$ it also allows one to catch the viscous effects in hadronic component - hadron-resonance gas. We demonstrate how the approximation of sudden freeze-out can be obtained within this dynamical picture of continuous emission and find that hypersurfaces, corresponding to a sharp freeze-out limit, are momentum dependent. The pion $m_{T}$ spectra are computed in the developed hydro-kinetic model, and compared with those obtained from ideal hydrodynamics with the Cooper-Frye isothermal prescription. Our results indicate that there does not exist a universal freeze-out temperature for pions with different momenta, and support an earlier decoupling of higher $p_{T}$ particles. By performing numerical simulations for various initial conditions and equations of state we identify several characteristic features of the bulk QCD matter evolution preferred in view of the current analysis of heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies.
Averaged over ensemble of initial conditions kinetic transport equations of weakly coupled systems of quarks and gluons are derived. These equations account for the correlators of fluctuations of particles and classical gluon fields. The isotropizati
on of particle momenta by field fluctuations at the early prethermal stage of matter evolution in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is discussed. Our results can be useful for understanding under what conditions isotropization of the quark-gluon plasma in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions can be reached within phenomenologically observed time scales.
We describe RHIC pion data in central A+A collisions and make predictions for LHC based on hydro-kinetic model, describing continuous 4D particle emission, and initial conditions taken from Color Glass Condensate (CGC) model.
