Heavy quark diffusion coefficient in heavy-ion collisions via kinetic theory

TL;DR

This paper calculates the heavy quark momentum diffusion coefficient during early heavy-ion collision stages using QCD kinetic theory, revealing directional and occupation-dependent variations that inform phenomenological models.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed kinetic theory calculation of the heavy quark diffusion coefficient during pre-equilibrium, highlighting directional differences and occupation effects.

Findings

Diffusion coefficient within 30% of thermal system at same energy density

Transverse diffusion larger at high occupation numbers

Longitudinal diffusion dominates in underoccupied systems

Abstract

We compute the heavy quark momentum diffusion coefficient $\kappa$ using QCD kinetic theory for a system going through bottom-up isotropization in the initial stages of a heavy ion collision. We find that the values of $\kappa$ are within 30% from a thermal system at the same energy density. When matching for other quantities we observe considerably larger deviations. We also observe that the diffusion coefficient in the transverse direction is larger at high occupation numbers, whereas for an underoccupied system the longitudinal diffusion coefficient dominates. The behavior of the diffusion coefficient can be understood on a qualitative level based on the Debye mass $m_D$ and the effective temperature of soft modes $T_*$. Our results for the kinetic evolution of $\kappa$ in different directions can be used in phenomenological descriptions of heavy quark diffusion and quarkonium dynamics to include the impact of pre-equilibrium stages.