HOLOGRAPHY, HYDRODYNAMIZATION AND HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS

In the course of the past several years holography has emerged as an ab initio tool in exploring strongly time-dependent phenomena in gauge theories. These lecture notes overview recent developments in this area driven by phenomenological questions concerning applicability of hydrodynamics (hydrodynamization) under extreme conditions occurring in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. The topics include hydrodynamization time scale, holographic collisions, as well as hydrodynamization from the point of view of the asymptotic character of the hydrodynamic gradient expansion. The emphasis is put on concepts rather than calculational techniques, and a particular attention is devoted to present these developments in the context of the most recent advances and some of the open problems.