%0 Journal Article
%T Inhomogeneous holographic thermalization
%A V. Balasubramanian
%A A. Bernamonti
%A J. de Boer
%A B. Craps
%A L. Franti
%A F. Galli
%A E. Keski-Vakkuri
%A B. M¨¹ller
%A A. Sch£¿fer
%J Physics
%D 2013
%I arXiv
%R 10.1007/JHEP10(2013)082
%X The sudden injection of energy in a strongly coupled conformal field theory and its subsequent thermalization can be holographically modeled by a shell falling into anti-de Sitter space and forming a black brane. For a homogeneous shell, Bhattacharyya and Minwalla were able to study this process analytically using a weak field approximation. Motivated by event-by-event fluctuations in heavy ion collisions, we include inhomogeneities in this model, obtaining analytic results in a long wavelength expansion. In the early-time window in which our approximations can be trusted, the resulting evolution matches well with that of a simple free streaming model. Near the end of this time window, we find that the stress tensor approaches that of second-order viscous hydrodynamics. We comment on possible lessons for heavy ion phenomenology.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.7086v2