We summarize recent significant progress in the development of a
first-principles formalism to describe the formation and evolution of matter in
very high energy heavy ion collisions. The key role of quantum fluctuations
both before and after a collision is emphasized. Systematic computations are
now feasible to address early time dynamics essential to quantifying properties
of strongly interacting quark-gluon matter.Comment: Talk by R.V. at Quark Matter 2011, Annecy, France, May 23-28, 2011.
LaTex, 4 pages; v2, final version to appear in J. Phys.