Bose condensation in gluon plasma

Louw, Gary

Bose condensation in gluon plasma

Thesis / Dissertation

2026

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Physics

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Abstract

To explore the possibility of a gluon condensate forming in heavy ion collisions, we study the quantum relativistic Boltzmann equation with glasma-inspired initial conditions. We focus on the standard case of a homogeneous and isotropic gluon plasma. Generalising an existing numerical approach for binary interactions in the scalar 𝜑4-theory to QCD, we develop an efficient framework to estimate equilibration and condensation timescales (to be compared to those for number-changing processes due to inelastic interactions). Our scheme improves on existing test particle simulations and Fokker-Planck approaches based on the small-scattering-angle approximation of the Boltzmann equation. By comparing the latter to our Boltzmann model allows the specification of an auxiliary UV cut-off which hitherto was known only parametrically. Uncertainties are thus reduced to details of QCD screening, which we parametrise with a screening mass and investigate with two different regularisations of the square amplitude. Preliminary results suggest that gluon condensation in heavy ion collisions is less likely than expected from Fokker-Planck approaches, which appear to underestimate equilibration and condensation timescales.