Speaker
Description
We present the first out-off-equilbirum analysis of relativistic
collision dynamics in the vicinity of a critical point. We numerically
solve shock wave collisions in a one parameter family of holographic
models with phase transitions of different orders. For a unique value of
the parameter, the model exhibits a second order phase transition which
connects a region of first order transition with an analytic cross-over.
We study the post-collision dynamics in the vicinity of that critical
point and analyse the out-of-equilibrium stress tensor in the aftermath
of those collisions. We observe that in the vicinity of the critical
point , independently of the nature of the transition, almost all the
energy of the projectiles ends up in a quasi-static, slowly evolving
blob of energy, as also observed in collisions with a strong first order
phase transition. We discuss the applicability of hydrodynamics for
those collisions and put our results into the context of searches for
the critical point in QCD.
