Transverse Shocks in the Turbulent Gluon Plasma Produced in Ultra-Relativistic A+A

Abstract

Mini-jet production in ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions leads to initial conditions characterized by large fluctuations of the local energy density (hot spots) and of the collective flow field (turbulence). Assuming that local equilibrium is reached on a small time scale, $\sim 0.5$ fm/c, the transverse evolution of those initial conditions is computed using hydrodynamics. We find that a new class of collective flow phenomena (hadronic volcanoes) could arise under such conditions. This could be observable via enhanced azimuthal fluctuations of the transverse energy flow, $d^2E_\perp/dϕdy$.

8 pages, 3 figures (epsi-format), 1 style file; to appear in Proc. of the Int. Conf. on Nucl. Phys. 'Structure of Vacuum and Elementary Matter', March 10 - 16, Wilderness, South Africa