Dragging heavy quark in an anisotropic QCD medium beyond the static limit

TL;DR

This paper investigates heavy quark transport properties in an anisotropic QCD medium beyond the static limit, revealing how anisotropy affects drag, diffusion, and energy loss depending on orientation and strength.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of heavy quark dynamics in anisotropic QCD media, including decomposition of transport coefficients and their directional dependence.

Findings

Anisotropic contributions significantly influence heavy quark transport coefficients.

The energy loss varies strongly with the anisotropy direction and magnitude.

Orientation of heavy quark motion relative to anisotropy affects drag and diffusion.

Abstract

Heavy quark dynamics in an anisotropic QCD medium have been analyzed within the Fokker-Planck approach. Heavy quark drag force and momentum diffusion tensor have been decomposed by employing a general tensor basis for an anisotropic medium. Depending upon the relative orientation of the direction of the momentum anisotropy of the medium and heavy quark motion, two drag and four diffusion coefficients have been estimated in the anisotropic QCD medium. The relative significance of different components of drag and momentum diffusion coefficients has been explored. The dependence of the angle between the anisotropic vector and heavy quark motion to the drag and diffusion coefficients has also been studied. Further, the energy loss of heavy quarks due to the elastic collisional process in an anisotropic medium has been studied. It is seen that the anisotropic contributions to heavy quark transport coefficients and its collisional energy loss have a strong dependence on the direction and strength of momentum anisotropy in the QCD medium.