Shell-like structures in an expanding quark-antiquark plasma.

Abstract

The particle density distribution emerging from the solution of the Vlasov equation for relativistic, noninteracting particles with spherically symmetric initial conditions is shown to exhibit a shell-like structure for late fixed times in the center-of-mass (CM) frame of the system. A similar phenomenon was recently observed employing the test-particle method to solve the Vlasov equation for quarks with Nambu{endash}Jona-Lasinio-type interactions, and was attributed to the attractive forces among the particles. Contrary to this claim, it is demonstrated here that this effect is of purely relativistic origin and is sensitive only to the mass of the particles and their initial phase-space distribution. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}