Local Thermalization of Gluons in a Nonlinear Model

Abstract

Analytic solutions of a nonlinear boson diffusion equation account for the fast local equilibration of gluons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions using schematic initial conditions. The solutions describe the time-dependent approach to the Bose-Einstein equilibrium distribution with a local equilibration time of τeq ≈ 0.1 fm/c and central temperatures of the order of 500 – 600 MeV in the initial stages of Pb-Pb collisions at energies reached at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).