Semi-classical transport theory for QCD

by Daniel LITIM (CERN-TH)

Thursday 8 Feb 2001, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Zurich

TH Auditorium (CERN)

The physics of high-temperature QCD plasma close to equilibrium, relevant for heavy ion collision experiments, has been studied extensively over the recent years, and important phenomena like Debye screening, Landau damping or colour conductivity are by now well understood. We show that a very simple semi-classical transport theory is sufficient to provide a systematic kinetic description of the QCD plasma. The approach is based on integrating-out short wavelength fluctuations in order to provide an effective transport theory for the long wavelength fields. It combines the concepts of classical coloured point particles with classical fields and leads to the derivation of collision integrals or noise sources for the Boltzmann equation. We discuss the key ideas and properties of this approach. Some applications for the close-to-equilibrium plasma are given as well.