Thermalization of anisotropic quark–gluon plasma produced by decays of color flux tubes

Kinetic equations are used to study the thermalization of an anisotropic quark–gluon plasma produced by decays of color flux tubes possibly created during the very early stages of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The decay rates of the initial color tubes are given by the Schwinger formula, while the collision terms are taken in the relaxation time approximation. By connecting the relaxation time with viscosity we analyze production and thermalization processes in the plasma characterized by different values of the ratio of the shear viscosity to entropy density.