A Tail of a Quark in N=4 SYM

TL;DR

This paper uses AdS/CFT correspondence to analyze the dynamics of a composite quark in N=4 super-Yang-Mills, deriving equations that include radiation damping effects and exploring their implications.

Contribution

It introduces a relativistic equation of motion for a dressed quark in strongly-coupled N=4 SYM, incorporating radiation effects via string dynamics.

Findings

Derived a relativistic equation of motion including radiation damping.

Obtained a non-standard dispersion relation for the composite quark.

Provided a Lorentz covariant formula for radiation rate.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of a `composite' or `dressed' quark in strongly-coupled large-N_c N=4 super-Yang-Mills, making use of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We show that the standard string dynamics nicely captures the physics of the quark and its surrounding non-Abelian field configuration, making it possible to derive a relativistic equation of motion that incorporates the effects of radiation damping. From this equation one can deduce a non-standard dispersion relation for the composite quark, as well as a Lorentz covariant formula for its rate of radiation. We explore the consequences of the equation in a few simple examples.