Jet Quenching in The Most Vortical Fluid: A Holographic Approach

TL;DR

This paper explores how extreme vorticity in the quark-gluon plasma, recently observed experimentally, could influence jet quenching, predicting a measurable reduction in jet quenching parameters in specific collision centralities using a holographic model.

Contribution

It introduces a holographic gauge-gravity model to predict the impact of vorticity on jet quenching in quark-gluon plasma, a novel connection between vorticity and jet suppression effects.

Findings

Predicted reduction in jet quenching parameter due to vorticity.

Effect most prominent at 10% centrality collisions.

Reduction is independent of collision energy.

Abstract

The STAR collaboration at the RHIC facility has recently announced the exciting discovery of direct evidence for extremely large vorticity in the Quark-Gluon Plasma generated in peripheral collisions, seen in the form of global polarization of $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda}$ hyperons. This prompts the question: does this vorticity have any effect on other observed phenomena, such as jet quenching? Using a simple gauge-gravity model, we suggest that such an effect may be detectable, in data from near-future experiments, as a reduction in the jet quenching parameter. This is predicted to be most prominent in collisions corresponding to a narrow range of centralities around $10 \%$. The relative reduction (compared to collisions at zero or, alternatively, large centrality) is predicted to behave in an unexpected and characteristic manner: the model suggests that it is independent of the impact energy.