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We use holography to analyse relativistic collisions in a one-parameter family of strongly coupled gauge theories with thermal phase transitions. For a critical value of the parameter the transition is second order, for subcritical values it is first order, and for super-critical values it is a smooth crossover. We extract the gauge theory stress tensor from collisions of gravitational shock waves on the dual geometries. Regardless of the nature of the transition, for values of the parameter close to the critical value almost all the energy of the projectiles is deposited into a long-lived, quasi-static blob of energy at mid-rapidity. This configuration is well described by the constitutive relations of second-order hydrodynamics that include all second-order gradients that are purely spatial in the local rest frame. In contrast, a M\"uller-Israel-Stewart-type formulation of hydrodynamics fails to provide a good description. We discuss possible implications for searches of the QCD critical point., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

We extend our previous analysis of holographic heavy ion collisions in non-conformal theories. We provide a detailed description of our numerical code. We study collisions at different energies in gauge theories with different degrees of non-conformality. We compare four relaxation times: the hydrodynamization time (when hydrodynamics becomes applicable), the EoSization time (when the average pressure approaches its equilibrium value), the isotropization time (when the longitudinal and transverse pressures approach each other) and the condensate relaxation time (when the expectation value of a scalar operator approaches its equilibrium value). We find that these processes can occur in several different orderings. In particular, the condensate can remain far from equilibrium even long after the plasma has hydrodynamized and EoSized. We also explore the rapidity distribution of the energy density at hydrodynamization. This is far from boost-invariant and its width decreases as the non-conformality increases. Nevertheless, the velocity field at hydrodynamization is almost exactly boost-invariant regardless of the non-conformality. This result may be used to constrain the initialization of hydrodynamic fields in heavy ion collisions., Comment: 45 pages, 17 figures. Expanded some sections. Matches published version in JHEP

We use holography to study the spinodal instability of a four-dimensional, strongly-coupled gauge theory with a first-order thermal phase transition. We place the theory on a cylinder in a set of homogeneous, unstable initial states. The dual gravity configurations are black branes afflicted by a Gregory-Laflamme instability. We numerically evolve Einstein's equations to follow the instability until the system settles down to a stationary, inhomogeneous black brane. The dual gauge theory states have constant temperature but non-constant energy density. We show that the time evolution of the instability and the final states are accurately described by second-order hydrodynamics. In the static limit, the latter reduces to a single, second-order, non-linear differential equation from which the inhomogeneous final states can be derived., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. Matches published version in JHEP

We numerically simulate collisions of charged shockwaves in Einstein-Maxwell theory in anti-de Sitter space as a toy model of heavy ion collisions with non-zero baryon charge. The stress tensor and the baryon current become well described by charged hydrodynamics at roughly the same time. The effect of the charge density on generic observables is typically no larger than 15\%. %The rapidity profile of the charge is wider than the profile of the local energy density. We find significant stopping of the baryon charge and compare our results with those in heavy ion collision experiments., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures

We numerically simulate gravitational shock wave collisions in a holographic model dual to a non-conformal four-dimensional gauge theory. We find two novel effects associated to the non-zero bulk viscosity of the resulting plasma. First, the hydrodynamization time increases. Second, if the bulk viscosity is large enough then the plasma becomes well described by hydrodynamics before the energy density and the average pressure begin to obey the equilibrium equation of state. We discuss implications for the quark-gluon plasma created in heavy ion collision experiments., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; published version

We study the equilibrium and near-equilibrium properties of a holographic five-dimensional model consisting of Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field with a non-trivial potential. The dual four-dimensional gauge theory is not conformal and, at zero temperature, exhibits a renormalisation group flow between two different fixed points. We quantify the deviations from conformality both in terms of thermodynamic observables and in terms of the bulk viscosity of the theory. The ratio of bulk over shear viscosity violates Buchel's bound. We study relaxation of small-amplitude, homogeneous perturbations by computing the quasi-normal modes of the system at zero spatial momentum. In this approximation we identify two different relaxation channels. At high temperatures, the different pressures first become approximately equal to one another, and subsequently this average pressure evolves towards the equilibrium value dictated by the equation of state. At low temperatures, the average pressure first evolves towards the equilibrium pressure, and only later the different pressures become approximately equal to one another., Comment: 22 pages, 29 figures; published version

The holographic isotropization of a highly anisotropic, homogeneous, strongly coupled, non-Abelian plasma was simplified in arXiv:1202.0981 by linearizing Einstein's equations around the final, equilibrium state. This approximation reproduces the expectation value of the boundary stress tensor with a 20% accuracy. Here we elaborate on these results and extend them to observables that are directly sensitive to the bulk interior, focusing for simplicity on the entropy production on the event horizon. We also consider next-to-leading-order corrections and show that the leading terms alone provide a better description of the isotropization process for the states that are furthest from equilibrium., Comment: 30 pages, 14 figures; v2: minor changes in the text, matches the published version