Mach cones in the quark-gluon plasma: Viscosity, speed of sound, and effects of finite source structure

Journal Article · Fri May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVC.79.054909· OSTI ID:21293730

Neufeld, R B ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708 (United States)

I use the space-time distribution of energy and momentum deposited by a fast parton traversing a perturbative quark-gluon plasma as a source term for the linearized hydrodynamical equations of the medium. A method of solution for the medium response is presented in detail. Numerical results are given for different values of the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio, {eta}/s, and speed of sound, c{sub s}. Furthermore, I investigate the relevance of finite source structure by expanding the source term up to first order in gradients of a {delta} function centered at the fast parton and comparing the resulting dynamics to that obtained with the full source. It is found that, for the source term used here, the medium response is sensitive to the finite source structure up to distances of several femtometers from the source parton.

• OSTI ID: 21293730
• Journal Information: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 79; ISSN 0556-2813; ISSN PRVCAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CONES
DELTA FUNCTION
DISTRIBUTION
ENERGY SPECTRA
ENTROPY
EQUATIONS
HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PERTURBATION THEORY
QUARK MATTER
SOUND WAVES
SPACE-TIME
VELOCITY
VISCOSITY