The early evolution of the gluon plasma produced in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions is investigated via chromoviscous hydrodynamics. The initial conditions are determined by perturbative QCD minijet production including nuclear shadowing of the parton distributions. The analog of Ohmic heating is shown to damp rapidly any chromoelectric fields in the plasma. In the context of the flux tube models for beam jet fragmentation this damping is shown to suppress pair production processes, decrease transverse energy production, and reduce the quark-gluon chemical equilibration rate. Possible implications for dilepton production are noted.

• Received 12 January 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.47.2329