Plasma instabilities in an anisotropically expanding geometry

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Physics
• High-Energy Physics
• Plasma Physics

Background:

• Ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions create extreme states of matter.
• Understanding the evolution of relativistic plasma is crucial for interpreting collision data.
• The color-glass condensate is a theoretical framework describing the state of matter in such collisions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the dynamics of relativistic plasma instabilities in a (3+1)D expanding geometry.
• To simulate the evolution of these instabilities using lattice-based methods.
• To analytically derive the late-time behavior of plasma instabilities.

Main Methods:

• Solving (3+1)D kinetic (Boltzmann-Vlasov) equations for relativistic plasma particles.
• Employing local equations in terms of Yang-Mills potentials and auxiliary fields.
• Performing numerical simulations on a lattice for hard- (expanding-) loop dynamics.
• Deriving analytical solutions for the late-time behavior of instabilities.

Main Results:

• Numerical determination of plasma instability evolution in the linear (Abelian) regime.
• Analytical derivation of late-time instability behavior, consistent with melting color-glass condensate simulations.
• Observation of a significant delay in the onset of plasma instabilities triggered by rapidity fluctuations.
• Instability onset delay observed even in highly anisotropic initial states.

Conclusions:

• The study provides insights into the dynamics of relativistic plasma instabilities in expanding systems.
• Numerical and analytical results confirm theoretical predictions regarding the color-glass condensate.
• A notable delay in instability growth is a key characteristic of these systems, even under anisotropy.