Abstract
We use holography to analyze relativistic collisions in a one-parameter family of strongly coupled gauge theories with thermal phase transitions. For a critical value of the parameter, the transition is second order, for subcritical values it is first order, and for supercritical values it a smooth crossover. We extract the gauge theory stress tensor from collisions of gravitational shock waves on the dual geometries. Regardless of the nature of the transition, for values of the parameter close to the critical value, almost all the energy of the projectiles is deposited into a long-lived, quasistatic blob of energy at midrapidity. This configuration is well described by the constitutive relations of second-order hydrodynamics that include all second-order gradients that are purely spatial in the local rest frame. In contrast, a Müller-Israel-Stewart-type formulation of hydrodynamics fails to provide a good description. We discuss possible implications for searches of the QCD critical point.
Highlights
Holographic Collisions across a Phase TransitionRegardless of the nature of the transition, for values of the parameter close to the critical value, almost all the energy of the projectiles is deposited into a long-lived, quasistatic blob of energy at midrapidity
Regardless of the nature of the transition, for values of the parameter close to the critical value, almost all the energy of the projectiles is deposited into a long-lived, quasistatic blob of energy at midrapidity. This configuration is well described by the constitutive relations of second-order hydrodynamics that include all second-order gradients that are purely spatial in the local rest frame
Introduction.—“Holographic Collisions,” namely collisions of gravitational shock waves in an asymptotically anti–de Sitter (AdS) spacetime, have provided interesting insights into the far-from-equilibrium properties of hot, strongly coupled, non-Abelian plasmas that are potentially relevant for the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) created in heavy ion collision experiments
Summary
Regardless of the nature of the transition, for values of the parameter close to the critical value, almost all the energy of the projectiles is deposited into a long-lived, quasistatic blob of energy at midrapidity. This configuration is well described by the constitutive relations of second-order hydrodynamics that include all second-order gradients that are purely spatial in the local rest frame. The first examples [2,3,4,5,6,7,8] considered gravity models dual to conformal field theories (CFTs) These studies were subsequently extended to nonconformal theories in Refs.
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