Quark-antiquark production from classical fields in heavy-ion collisions:1+1dimensions

Abstract

Classical color fields produced by the small-x wave functions of colliding ultrarelativistic nuclei have been numerically computed. We set up the framework for computing the production of small-mass quark-antiquark pairs in these color fields by numerically integrating the Dirac equation. This computation is essential for understanding the conversion of the initial gluonic state to a chemically equilibrated quark-gluon plasma. To illustrate and overcome technical difficulties associated with the longitudinal dimension, we first consider numerically the case of one time + one longitudinal space dimension.