Gluon Saturation and the Formation Stage of Heavy Ion Collisions

Abstract

The high energy limit of QCD is controlled by very high energy density gluonic matter, the Color Glass Condensate. In the first instants of the collisions of two sheets of Colored Glass Condensate, a Glasma is formed with longitudinal flux tubes of color electric and magnetic fields. These flux tubes decay and might form a turbulent liquid that eventually thermalizes into a Quark Gluon Plasma