Transport coefficients of Quark-Gluon Plasma in a Kinetic Theory approach

Abstract

One of the main results of heavy ions collision at relativistic energy experiments is the very small shear viscosity to entropy density ratio of the Quark-Gluon Plasma, close to the conjectured lower bound η/s = 1/4π for systems in the infinite coupling limit. Transport coefficients like shear viscosity are responsible of non-equilibrium properties of a system: Green- Kubo relations give us an exact expression to compute these coefficients. We computed shear viscosity numerically using Green-Kubo relation in the framework of Kinetic Theory solving the relativistic transport Boltzmann equation in a finite box with periodic boundary conditions. We investigated different cases of particles, for one component system (gluon matter), interacting via isotropic or anisotropic cross-section in the range of temperature of interest for HIC. Green-Kubo results are in agreement with Chapman-Enskog approximation while Relaxation Time approximation can underestimates the viscosity of a factor 2. Another transport coefficient of interest is the electric conductivity σel which determines the response of QGP to the electromagnetic fields present in the early stage of the collision. We study the σel dependence on microscopic details of interaction and we find also in this case that Relaxation Time Approximation is a good approximation only for isotropic cross-section.