Classical strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma. I. Model and molecular dynamics simulations

We propose a model for the description of strongly interacting quarks and gluon quasiparticles at T=(1-3)Tc as a classical and nonrelativistic colored Coulomb gas. The sign and strength of the interparticle interactions are fixed by the scalar product of their classical color vectors subject to Wong's equations. The model displays a number of phases as the Coulomb coupling is increased ranging from a gas, to a liquid, to a crystal with antiferromagnetic-like color ordering. We analyze the model using molecular dynamics simulations and discuss the density-density correlator in real time. We extract pertinent decorrelation times, diffusion, and viscosity constants for all phases. The classical results when extrapolated to the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma suggest that the phase is liquid-like, with a diffusion constant D≈0.1/T and a shear viscosity to entropy density ratio η/s≈1/3.