Hydrodynamic flow in small systems, or: "How the heck is it possible that a system emitting only a dozen particles can be described by fluid dynamics?"

Abstract

The "unreasonable effectiveness" of relativistic fluid dynamics in describing high energy heavy-ion and even proton-proton collisions are demonstrated and discussed. Several recent ideas of optimizing relativistic fluid dynamics for the specific challenges posed by such collisions will be presented, and some thoughts will be offered why the framework works better than originally expected. I will also address the unresolved question where exactly hydrodynamics breaks down, and why.