Universality of the diffusion wake in the gauge-string duality

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in gauge-string duality, the diffusion wake generated by a moving heavy quark in a thermal plasma has a universal strength across various supergravity models, impacting our understanding of quark-gluon plasma dynamics.

Contribution

It establishes the universality of the diffusion wake strength in gauge-string duality for a broad class of models, linking it to drag force and hydrodynamics.

Findings

Diffusion wake has a universal strength relative to drag force.

Universality applies to all asymptotically AdS supergravity models.

Results inform di-hadron correlation analysis in heavy ion collisions.

Abstract

As a particle moves through a fluid, it may generate a laminar wake behind it. In the gauge-string duality, we show that such a diffusion wake is created by a heavy quark moving through a thermal plasma and that it has a universal strength when compared to the total drag force exerted on the quark by the plasma. The universality extends over all asymptotically anti-de Sitter supergravity constructions with arbitrary scalar matter. We discuss how these results relate to the linearized hydrodynamic approximation and how they bear on our understanding of di-hadron correlators in heavy ion collisions.