Heavy quark energy loss far from equilibrium in a strongly coupled collision
We compute and study the drag force acting on a heavy quark propagating through the matter produced in the collision of two sheets of energy in a strongly coupled gauge theory that can be analyzed holographically. Although this matter is initially far from equilibrium, we find that the equilibrium e...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Springer-Verlag
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88553 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5812-8718 |
| _version_ | 1811090161146003456 |
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| author | Chesler, Paul Michael Lekaveckas, Mindaugas Rajagopal, Krishna |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics Chesler, Paul Michael Lekaveckas, Mindaugas Rajagopal, Krishna |
| author_sort | Chesler, Paul Michael |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We compute and study the drag force acting on a heavy quark propagating through the matter produced in the collision of two sheets of energy in a strongly coupled gauge theory that can be analyzed holographically. Although this matter is initially far from equilibrium, we find that the equilibrium expression for heavy quark energy loss in a homogeneous strongly coupled plasma with the same instantaneous energy density or pressure as that at the location of the quark describes many qualitative features of our results. One interesting exception is that there is a time delay after the initial collision before the heavy quark energy loss becomes significant. At later times, once a liquid plasma described by viscous hydrodynamics has formed, expressions based upon assuming instantaneous homogeneity and equilibrium provide a semi-quantitative description of our results — as long as the rapidity of the heavy quark is not too large. For a heavy quark with large rapidity, the gradients in the velocity of the hydrodynamic fluid result in qualitative consequences for the ‘drag’ force acting on the quark. In certain circumstances, the force required to drag the quark through the plasma can point opposite to the velocity of the quark, meaning that the force that the plasma exerts on a quark moving through it acts in the same direction as its velocity. And, generically, the force includes a component perpendicular to the direction of motion of the quark. Our results support a straightforward approach to modeling the drag on, and energy loss of, heavy quarks with modest rapidity in heavy ion collisions, both before and after the quark-gluon plasma hydrodynamizes, and provide cautionary lessons at higher rapidity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:35:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/88553 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:35:56Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Springer-Verlag |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/885532022-10-01T21:46:33Z Heavy quark energy loss far from equilibrium in a strongly coupled collision Chesler, Paul Michael Lekaveckas, Mindaugas Rajagopal, Krishna Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Chesler, Paul Michael Lekaveckas, Mindaugas Rajagopal, Krishna We compute and study the drag force acting on a heavy quark propagating through the matter produced in the collision of two sheets of energy in a strongly coupled gauge theory that can be analyzed holographically. Although this matter is initially far from equilibrium, we find that the equilibrium expression for heavy quark energy loss in a homogeneous strongly coupled plasma with the same instantaneous energy density or pressure as that at the location of the quark describes many qualitative features of our results. One interesting exception is that there is a time delay after the initial collision before the heavy quark energy loss becomes significant. At later times, once a liquid plasma described by viscous hydrodynamics has formed, expressions based upon assuming instantaneous homogeneity and equilibrium provide a semi-quantitative description of our results — as long as the rapidity of the heavy quark is not too large. For a heavy quark with large rapidity, the gradients in the velocity of the hydrodynamic fluid result in qualitative consequences for the ‘drag’ force acting on the quark. In certain circumstances, the force required to drag the quark through the plasma can point opposite to the velocity of the quark, meaning that the force that the plasma exerts on a quark moving through it acts in the same direction as its velocity. And, generically, the force includes a component perpendicular to the direction of motion of the quark. Our results support a straightforward approach to modeling the drag on, and energy loss of, heavy quarks with modest rapidity in heavy ion collisions, both before and after the quark-gluon plasma hydrodynamizes, and provide cautionary lessons at higher rapidity. United States. Dept. of Energy (Cooperative Research Agreement DE-FG0205ER41360) 2014-08-06T18:16:25Z 2014-08-06T18:16:25Z 2013-10 2013-06 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1029-8479 1126-6708 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88553 Chesler, Paul M., Mindaugas Lekaveckas, and Krishna Rajagopal. “Heavy Quark Energy Loss Far from Equilibrium in a Strongly Coupled Collision.” J. High Energ. Phys. 2013, no. 10 (October 2013). https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5812-8718 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/jhep10(2013)013 Journal of High Energy Physics Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Springer-Verlag Springer |
| spellingShingle | Chesler, Paul Michael Lekaveckas, Mindaugas Rajagopal, Krishna Heavy quark energy loss far from equilibrium in a strongly coupled collision |
| title | Heavy quark energy loss far from equilibrium in a strongly coupled collision |
| title_full | Heavy quark energy loss far from equilibrium in a strongly coupled collision |
| title_fullStr | Heavy quark energy loss far from equilibrium in a strongly coupled collision |
| title_full_unstemmed | Heavy quark energy loss far from equilibrium in a strongly coupled collision |
| title_short | Heavy quark energy loss far from equilibrium in a strongly coupled collision |
| title_sort | heavy quark energy loss far from equilibrium in a strongly coupled collision |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88553 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5812-8718 |
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