Novel instabilities in counter-streaming nonabelian fluids

Abstract

The dynamics of strongly interacting particles are governed by Yang–Mills (Y–M) theory, which is a natural generalization of Maxwell Electrodynamics (ED). Its quantized version is known as quantum chromodynamics (QCD) (Gross and Wilczek, 1973; Politzer, 1973; ’t Hooft, 1972[1–3]) and has been very well studied. Classical Y–M theory is proving to be equally interesting because of the central role it plays in describing the physics of quark–gluon plasma (QGP) — which was prevalent in the early universe and is also produced in relativistic heavy ion collision experiments. This calls for a systematic study of classical Y–M theories. A good insight into classical Y–M dynamics would be best obtained by comparing and contrasting the Y–M results with their ED counterparts. In this article, a beginning has been made by considering streaming instabilities in Y–M fluids. We find that in addition to analogues of ED instabilities, novel nonabelian modes arise, reflecting the inherent nonabelian nature of the interaction. The new modes exhibit propagation/ growth, with growth rates that can be larger than what we find in ED. Interestingly, we also find a mode that propagates without getting affected by the medium.

Keywords

• Yang–Mills plasma
• Nonabelain plasma
• Streaming instabilities
• Two-stream instability
• Weibel instability
• Nonabelain modes