On dissociation of heavy mesons in a hot quark-gluon plasma

TL;DR

This paper compares two mechanisms for heavy meson dissociation in a hot quark-gluon plasma, finding that multiple scattering is more effective than dynamic Debye screening, with implications for understanding quark-gluon plasma behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a parametric comparison of dissociation criteria for heavy mesons due to Debye screening and multiple scattering in a quark-gluon plasma.

Findings

Multiple scattering is more efficient for meson dissociation.

Dissociation criteria are parametrically derived for both mechanisms.

Heavy meson dissociation depends on temperature and effective coupling.

Abstract

We compare two mechanisms for the dissociation of heavy mesons in an infinite quark-gluon plasma: dynamic Debye screening and multiple scattering. Using the uncertainty principle inspired by a Schrodinger-like equation, we find that the criterion a_B\simeq1/\mu\simeq 1/(\alpha_{eff}^{1/2}T) with \alpha_{eff}\equiv\alpha(N_c+{N_f\over2}) is parametrically true both for the dissociation of fast moving heavy mesons with a size a_B due to dynamic Debye screening as well as for mesons at rest in the medium. In contrast, we find that the criterion for the dissociation of heavy mesons due to uncorrelated multiple scattering is parametrically 1/a_B \simeq [\gamma\alpha_{eff}\ln{1/\alpha_{eff}}]^{1/3}T. Therefore, multiple scattering is a more efficient mechanism for the dissociation of heavy mesons in an infinite hot plasma.