QCD thermalization: Ab initio approaches and interdisciplinary connections

Evidence suggests that terrestrial accelerators can create energy densities yielding a state of matter called the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The QGP is the result of thermalization in quantum chromodynamics. Terrestrial accelerators collide protons and nuclei where the initial stages of interactions are far out of equilibrium. This review considers two limits: the weak coupling, high occupation limit and the strong coupling limit. While there is...