On the energy deposited by a quark moving in an N=4 SYM plasma

TL;DR

This paper calculates the energy distribution around a moving quark in an N=4 SYM plasma, revealing transient behaviors at velocities exceeding the plasma's speed of sound, which enhances understanding of energy dissipation in strongly coupled plasmas.

Contribution

It provides a detailed evaluation of the energy momentum tensor for a moving quark in an N=4 SYM plasma, highlighting transient phenomena at super-sound velocities.

Findings

Energy density shows a transient behavior above the plasma's speed of sound.

Near-quark region dynamics are dominated by dissipative effects.

Quantitative characterization of energy distribution around the quark.

Abstract

We evaluate the energy momentum tensor of a massive quark as it moves through an N=4 SYM quark gluon plasma at constant velocity. We find that in the near-quark region, where the dynamics is expected to be dominated by dissipative behavior, the energy density may be quantitatively characterized by a transient at velocities above the speed of sound of the plasma.