Classical Initial Conditions for Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions

Abstract

We present the results of an analytical calculation of the distribution of gluons in the state immediately following a heavy ion collision in the quasi-classical limit of QCD given by McLerran-Venugopalan model. We show that the typical transverse energy Et of the produced gluons is of the order of the saturation scale of the nuclei Qs, as predicted by Mueller. We demonstrate that due to multiple rescatterings the obtained gluon distribution remains finite (up to logarithms of k) in the soft transverse momentum limit of k << Q_s. We compare the gluon spectrum in the single nuclear wave function before the collision to the spectrum of the produced gluons. The total number of produced gluons turns out to be proportional to the total number of gluons inside the nuclear wave function before the collision with the proportionality coefficient c = 2 ln 2.

4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of 15th International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (QM2001), Stony Brook, New York, 15-20 Jan 2001

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