Kelvin-Helmholz instability in high energy heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The dynamical development of collective flow is studied in a (3+1)D fluid dynamical model, with globally symmetric, peripheral initial conditions, which take into account the shear flow caused by the forward motion on the projectile side and the backward motion on the target side. While at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.76A$\,TeV semi-peripheral Pb+Pb collisions the earlier predicted rotation effect is visible, at more peripheral collisions, with high resolution and low numerical viscosity the initial development of a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is observed, which alters the flow pattern considerably. This effect provides a precision tool for studying the low viscosity of Quark-gluon Plasma.