Real Time Dynamics of Colliding Gauge Fields and the ''Glue Burst''

The Yang Mills equations provide a classical mean field description of gauge fields. In view of developing a coherent description of the formation of the quark gluon plasma in high energetic nucleus-nucleus collisions we study pure gauge field dynamics in 3+1 dimensions. In collisions of wave packets, numerically simulated on a SU(2) gauge lattice, we study transverse and longitudinal energy currents. For wave packets with different polarizations in color space, we observe a time delayed fragmentation after the collision resulting in a rapid expansion into transverse directions. We call this phenomenon the ''glue burst''. An analysis of the Yang Mills equations reveals the explanation for this behavior. We point out that this effect could play a role in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions.