The Maximum lifetime of the quark - gluon plasma

Sep, 1995
22 pages
Published in:
  • Nucl.Phys.A 597 (1996) 701-726
e-Print:
Report number:
  • CU-TP-706

Citations per year

1996200320102017202402468101214
Abstract:
The width ΔT\Delta T of the deconfinement transition region is shown to influence strongly the flow structure in the (Landau-) hydrodynamical expansion of a quark-gluon plasma. For a sharp first order transition (ΔT=0\Delta T=0) the mixed phase is rather long-lived, with a lifetime that has a maximum when the initial energy density is at the phase boundary between mixed and pure quark-gluon matter. For increasing ΔT\Delta T, however, the lifetime decreases rapidly. Hadronic matter, however, remains long-lived as a consequence of the rapid change in the degrees of freedom in the transition region and the corresponding ``softening'' of the equation of state.
  • quark gluon: plasma
  • critical phenomena: confinement
  • expansion: hydrodynamics
  • lifetime
  • energy: density
  • entropy: density
  • temperature
  • numerical calculations