Cherenkov mesons as in-medium quark energy loss

TL;DR

This paper explores how heavy quarks lose energy via Cherenkov radiation of mesons in a quark-gluon plasma, extending previous holographic models to include different meson types and discussing experimental implications.

Contribution

It extends previous holographic calculations of Cherenkov meson radiation to include longitudinal vector and scalar mesons, providing a broader understanding of in-medium quark energy loss.

Findings

Cherenkov energy loss can be comparable to other mechanisms at Nc=3

Extension of holographic model to additional meson types

Discussion of phenomenological implications for heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We recently showed that a heavy quark moving sufficiently fast through a quark-gluon plasma may lose energy by Cherenkov-radiating mesons [1]. Here we review our previous holographic calculation of the energy loss in N=4 Super Yang-Mills and extend it to longitudinal vector mesons and scalar mesons. We also discuss phenomenological implications for heavy-ion collision experiments. Although the Cherenkov energy loss is an O(1/Nc) effect, a ballpark estimate yields a value of dE/dx for Nc=3 which is comparable to that of other mechanisms.