Acceleration and Energy Loss in N=4 SYM

TL;DR

This paper reviews the energy loss of an accelerating quark in strongly-coupled N=4 SYM plasma, highlighting the conditions under which the energy loss formula applies and its dependence on quark-antiquark separation.

Contribution

It clarifies the onset of plasma effects on an accelerating quark and connects the energy loss behavior to the screening length in N=4 SYM.

Findings

Energy loss occurs after the q-q separation exceeds the screening length.

The energy loss follows a previously derived analytic formula.

The results apply to both zero and finite temperature plasmas.

Abstract

We give a brief overview of the results obtained in arXiv:0803.3070, concerning the rate of energy loss of an accelerating quark in strongly-coupled N=4 super-Yang-Mills, both at zero and finite temperature. For phenomenological purposes, our main result is that, when a quark is created within the plasma together with its corresponding antiquark, the quark starts feeling the plasma only after the q-\bar{q} separation becomes larger than the (v-dependent) screening length, and from this point on the motion is correctly described by the analytic energy loss formula previously derived by Herzog et al. and Gubser within the stationary or late-time approximations. The present text is a slightly expanded version of two talks given at the XIII Mexican School of Particles and Fields in October 2008.