Quasilinear transport approach to equilibration of quark-gluon plasmas

Abstract

We derive the transport equations of quark-gluon plasma in the quasilinear approximation. The equations are either of the Balescu-Lenard or Fokker-Planck form. The plasma's dynamics is assumed to be governed by longitudinal chromoelectric fields. The isotropic plasma, which is stable, and the two-stream system, which is unstable, are considered in detail. A process of equilibration is briefly discussed in both cases. The peaks of the two-stream distribution are shown to rapidly dissolve in time. © 2010 The American Physical Society.