Nuclear Physics Seminar

Heavy-quark energy loss and thermalization in a strongly coupled plasma

Cyrille Marquet (Columbia U.)

I will discuss the problem of heavy-quark energy loss and $p_\perp-$broadening in a strongly-coupled $N=4$ SYM plasma. Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, the strong coupling problem has been reduced by Herzog et al. to solving the classical dynamics of a trailing string in AdS space. I will propose an interpretation of the results in terms of the saturation momentum $Q_s$ at strong coupling. Interestingly, the energy loss is parametrically the same than for a weakly-coupled QCD plasma, when expressed in terms of $Q_s,$ while $p_\perp-$broadening is radiation dominated in SYM theory and multiple scattering dominated in pQCD. Finally, I will consider the situation where the heavy quark is slowing down in the medium and estimate the thermalization time.

Yuri Kovchegov

Last modified: Fri Oct 10 16:14:39 EDT 2008