Yoctosecond metrology through Hanbury Brown-Twiss correlations from a quark-gluon plasma.

Expansion dynamics at the yoctosecond time scale affect the evolution of the quark gluon plasma (QGP) created in heavy ion collisions. We show how these dynamics are accessible through Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) intensity interferometry of direct photons emitted from the interior of the QGP. A detector placed close to the beam axis is particularly sensitive to early polar momentum anisotropies of the QGP. Observing a modification of the HBT signal at the proposed FoCal detector of the LHC ALICE experiment would allow us to measure the isotropization time of the plasma and could provide first experimental evidence for photon double pulses at the yoctosecond time scale.