Shock waves from heavy-quark mesons in AdS/CFT

TL;DR

This paper models heavy-quark mesons in a quark-gluon plasma using AdS/CFT, revealing they generate shock waves without diffusion wakes, contrasting with single heavy quarks, and suggesting observable differences in heavy-ion collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-classical string theory approach to describe heavy-quark mesons in AdS/CFT and predicts their unique shock wave signatures in the plasma.

Findings

Heavy-quark mesons produce shock waves without diffusion wakes.

Contrast with single heavy quarks shows different plasma responses.

Potential experimental signatures in heavy-ion collisions.

Abstract

We calculate the far-field stress-energy tensor of a quark gluon plasma due to a heavy-quark meson moving through it, using a semi-classical description in string theory of the meson as a string hanging into anti-de Sitter space. We find that these mesons create a shock wave but no diffusion wake, in contrast to single heavy quarks described via a trailing string, where the diffusion wake is strong. If thermal QCD responds similarly to heavy quarks and heavy quarkonia, the presence or suppression of the diffusion wake constitutes a prediction which can in principle be checked in heavy-ion collisions.