Comparing the drag force on heavy quarks in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory and QCD

Journal Article · Sat Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 2007 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.76.126003· OSTI ID:21024098

Gubser, Steven S ^[1]

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1. Joseph Henry Laboratories, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 (United States)

Computations of the drag force on a heavy quark moving through a thermal state of strongly coupled N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory have appeared recently. I compare the strength of this effect between N=4 gauge theory and QCD, using the static force between external quarks to normalize the 't Hooft coupling. Comparing N=4 and QCD at fixed energy density then leads to a relaxation time of roughly 2 fm/c for charm quarks moving through a quark-gluon plasma at T=250 MeV. This estimate should be regarded as preliminary because of the difficulties of comparing two such different theories.

• OSTI ID: 21024098
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 76; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
B QUARKS
C QUARKS
CALCULATION METHODS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COUPLING
ENERGY DENSITY
GAUGE INVARIANCE
MEV RANGE
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUARK MATTER
RELAXATION TIME
SUPERSYMMETRY
T QUARKS
YANG-MILLS THEORY