# Fate of in-medium heavy quarks via a Lindblad equation

## TL;DR

This paper models the quantum dynamics of heavy quarks in a quark-gluon plasma using a Lindblad equation, exploring dissociation, recombination, and decoherence phenomena.

## Contribution

It derives Lindblad equations for heavy quarks from gauge theory and performs simulations to study their in-medium behavior.

## Key findings

- Bound-state dissociation depends on the imaginary part of the potential.
- Recombination and decoherence are influenced by medium interactions.
- Simulations reveal the importance of quantum effects in quark dynamics.

## Abstract

What is the dynamics of heavy quarks and antiquarks in a quark gluon plasma? Can heavy-quark bound states dissociate? Can they (re)combine? These questions are addressed by investigating a Lindblad equation that describes the quantum dynamics of the heavy quarks in a medium. The Lindblad equations for a heavy quark and a heavy quark-antiquark pair are derived from the gauge theory, following a chain of well-defined approximations. In this work the case of an abelian plasma has been considered, but the extension to the non-abelian case is feasible. A one-dimensional simulation of the Lindblad equation is performed to extract information about bound-state dissociation, recombination and quantum decoherence for a heavy quark-antiquark pair. All these phenomena are found to depend strongly on the imaginary part of the inter-quark potential.