Self-similar equilibration of strongly interacting systems from holography

Abstract

We study the equilibration of a class of far-from-equilibrium strongly interacting systems using gauge-gravity duality. The systems we analyze are 2+1 dimensional and have a four-dimensional gravitational dual. A prototype example of a system we analyze is the equilibration of a two-dimensional fluid which is translational invariant in one direction and is attached to two different heat baths with different temperatures at infinity in the other direction. We realize such setup in gauge-gravity duality by joining two semi-infinite asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) black branes of different temperatures, which subsequently evolve towards equilibrium by emitting gravitational radiation towards the boundary of AdS. At sufficiently late times the solution converges to a similarity solution, which is only sensitive to the left and right equilibrium states and not to the details of the initial conditions. This attractor solution not only incorporates the growing region of equilibrated plasma but also the outwardly propagating transition regions, and can be constructed by solving a single ordinary differential equation.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Kostas Skenderis: orcid.org/0000-0003-4509-5472

ORCID for Benjamin Withers: orcid.org/0000-0001-8490-9948

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