Heavy quark diffusion from coherent color fields in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper calculates heavy quark diffusion coefficients from early-stage coherent color fields in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, comparing them with thermalized plasma results, highlighting the fields' impact on quark transport.

Contribution

It introduces a model for coherent color fields' evolution and quantifies their effect on heavy quark diffusion, a novel approach in heavy-ion collision studies.

Findings

Diffusion coefficients from color fields are larger than from thermalized plasma for slow heavy quarks.

Color fields are less effective for heavy-quark energy loss.

The influence of color fields diminishes with decreasing energy density.

Abstract

The diffusion coefficients of heavy quarks from the coherent color electromagnetic fields which are generated in the early stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions are calculated at midrapidity, and compared with those obtained from collisions within a thermalized quark-gluon plasma. The coherent color fields are modeled such that they are initially longitudinal and then become isotropic. We found that the diffusion coefficients from the coherent color fields are larger than those from collisions except for very fast heavy quarks, and the color fields are less effective for heavy-quark energy loss. The importance of coherent color fields for heavy-quark diffusion decreases as energy density decreases.