A DYNAMICAL MODEL OF THE BEHAVIOR OF HADRONIC AND FUNDAMENTAL STRINGS AT FINITE DENSITIES

Abstract

A dynamical model of interacting strings with fixed total energy and finite energy density is studied. Results previously obtained for the case when the kinetic energy is small are extended by means of a full relativistic analysis. The nonlinear dynamical equations of the model are solved numerically and the equilibrium configurations for the case of both fundamental strings and the flux tube model of hadrons are investigated as a function of the energy density. Our results strongly suggest the formation of a resonance dominated phase for sufficiently large energy densities. The model is applied to the study of the evolution of hadronic matter produced in ion collision experiments. where the formation of a resonance dominated phase is noted immediately after the collision. Our results indicate that this nonequilibrium state decays rapidly and relaxes to equilibrium very soon after the collision, with a typical time scale of T~1/mπ~5−10−24 s.