Hydrodynamics Near a Chiral Critical Point

Abstract

We introduce a model for the real-time evolution of a relativistic fluid of quarks coupled to non-equilibrium dynamics of the long wavelength (classical) modes of the chiral condensate. We solve the equations of motion numerically in 3+1 space-time dimensions. Starting the evolution at high temperature in the symmetric phase, we study dynamical trajectories that either cross the line of first-order phase transitions or evolve through its critical endpoint. For those cases, we predict the behavior of the azimuthal momentum asymmetry for high-energy heavy-ion collisions at nonzero impact parameter.

14 pages, 8 figures, version accepted for publication in PRC