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Main Authors: Rajagopal, Krishna, Scheihing-Hitschfeld, Bruno, Steinhorst, Rachel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21232
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author Rajagopal, Krishna
Scheihing-Hitschfeld, Bruno
Steinhorst, Rachel
author_facet Rajagopal, Krishna
Scheihing-Hitschfeld, Bruno
Steinhorst, Rachel
contents We study the process of hydrodynamization in kinetic theories of gluons undergoing boost-invariant expansion using the Adiabatic Hydrodynamization (AH) framework. We study both number-conserving and non-conserving theories, and find that including number non-conserving inelastic scattering processes restores many qualitative features of hydrodynamization in QCD EKT despite the simplicity of our model. In particular, introducing inelastic scattering results in a more realistic hydrodynamization time. With or without number non-conservation, we find that first-order hydrodynamics becomes applicable at the same time that a unique ground state emerges in the dynamical evolution of the one-particle distribution function. Furthermore, we find a set of low-effective-energy attractor modes which evolve adiabatically long before hydrodynamization, and find that the emergence of a gap between these ground state modes and the excited modes coincides with the time at which the system falls onto an attractor surface. Strikingly, this is the case even in the absence of pre-thermal scaling of the gluon distribution function, which has previously been strongly associated with pre-thermal attractor behavior. Finally, motivated by a generic feature we observe in the spectrum, we show that as the system hydrodynamizes, the rapid decoupling of non-hydrodynamic modes in boost-invariant kinetic theory can be understood with the AH framework in a model-independent fashion.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_21232
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Attractors Without Scaling: Adiabatic Hydrodynamization With and Without Inelastic Scattering
Rajagopal, Krishna
Scheihing-Hitschfeld, Bruno
Steinhorst, Rachel
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
We study the process of hydrodynamization in kinetic theories of gluons undergoing boost-invariant expansion using the Adiabatic Hydrodynamization (AH) framework. We study both number-conserving and non-conserving theories, and find that including number non-conserving inelastic scattering processes restores many qualitative features of hydrodynamization in QCD EKT despite the simplicity of our model. In particular, introducing inelastic scattering results in a more realistic hydrodynamization time. With or without number non-conservation, we find that first-order hydrodynamics becomes applicable at the same time that a unique ground state emerges in the dynamical evolution of the one-particle distribution function. Furthermore, we find a set of low-effective-energy attractor modes which evolve adiabatically long before hydrodynamization, and find that the emergence of a gap between these ground state modes and the excited modes coincides with the time at which the system falls onto an attractor surface. Strikingly, this is the case even in the absence of pre-thermal scaling of the gluon distribution function, which has previously been strongly associated with pre-thermal attractor behavior. Finally, motivated by a generic feature we observe in the spectrum, we show that as the system hydrodynamizes, the rapid decoupling of non-hydrodynamic modes in boost-invariant kinetic theory can be understood with the AH framework in a model-independent fashion.
title Attractors Without Scaling: Adiabatic Hydrodynamization With and Without Inelastic Scattering
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21232