The Chromo–Weibel instability is a plasma instability present in homogeneous or nearly homogeneous non-abelian plasmas

Plasma (physics)

In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...

 which possess an anisotropy in momentum space. In the linear limit it is similar to the Weibel instability

Weibel instability

The Weibel instability is a plasma instability present in homogeneous or nearly homogeneous electromagnetic plasmas which possess an anisotropy in momentum space. In other words, all the electrons are moving in one direction. In the linear limit the instability causes exponential growth of...

 in electromagnetic plasmas but due to non-linear interactions present in non-abelian plasmas the late development of this instability is characterized by a turbulent cascade of modes. This instability is relevant in the understanding of the early-time dynamics of the quark-gluon plasma as produced in heavy-ion collisions

Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is one of two existing heavy-ion colliders, and the only spin-polarized proton collider in the world. It is located at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York and operated by an international team of researchers...

.