SUPERCOOLING OF RAPIDLY EXPANDING QUARK-GLUON PLASMA

We reexamine the scenario of homogeneous nucleation of the quark-gluon plasma produced in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. A general ization of the standard nucleation theory to rapidly expanding system is proposed. The nucleation rate is derived via the new scaling parame ter lambda(Z). It is shown that the size distribution of hadronic clus ters plays an important role in the dynamics of the phase transition. The longitudinally expanding system is supercooled to about 3-6%, then it is reheated, and the hadronization is completed within 6-10 fm/c, i.e. 5-10 times faster than it was estimated earlier, in a strongly no nequilibrium way. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.