Parton radiative processes and pressure isotropization in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The impact of radiative processes on kinetic equilibration is studied via a radiative transport model. The 2 <-> 3 processes can significantly increase the level of thermalization. These processes lead to an approximate coupling constant scaling of the evolution of the pressure anisotropy qualitatively different from the case with only 2 -> 2 partonic processes. Furthermore, thermal and Color Glass Condensate motivated initial conditions are shown to share the same asymptotic evolution when 2 <-> 3 processes are included. This emphasizes the unique role of radiative processes in Quark-Gluon Plasma thermalization.

Revised introduction and discussion on 3-body collisions, corrected Equation (3), updated acknowledgments and references