Dissipation from a heavy quark moving through N=4 super-Yang-Mills plasma

TL;DR

This paper uses AdS/CFT to analyze the energy dissipation and wake formation caused by a heavy quark moving through a strongly coupled N=4 super-Yang-Mills plasma, with potential implications for heavy ion collisions.

Contribution

It provides the first Fourier space profile of <tr F^2> generated by a moving heavy quark in a strongly coupled plasma using AdS/CFT.

Findings

Evidence of a wake behind the quark with large momentum gauge fields

Profiles of <tr F^2> indicate energy dissipation patterns

Potential relevance to relativistic heavy ion collision phenomena

Abstract

Using AdS/CFT, we compute the Fourier space profile of <tr F^2> generated by a heavy quark moving through a thermal plasma of strongly coupled N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory. We find evidence of a wake whose description includes gauge fields with large momenta. We comment on the possible relevance of our results to relativistic heavy ion collisions.