Synchrotron radiation in strongly coupled conformal field theories

Journal Article · Tue Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.81.126001· OSTI ID:21408119

Athanasiou, Christiana; Chesler, Paul M; Liu, Hong; Rajagopal, Krishna ^[1]; Nickel, Dominik ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
2. Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 (United States)

Using gauge/gravity duality, we compute the energy density and angular distribution of the power radiated by a quark undergoing circular motion in strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We compare the strong coupling results to those at weak coupling, finding them to be very similar. In both regimes, the angular distribution of the radiated power is in fact similar to that of synchrotron radiation produced by an electron in circular motion in classical electrodynamics: the quark emits radiation in a narrow beam along its velocity vector with a characteristic opening angle {alpha}{approx}1/{gamma}. To an observer far away from the quark, the emitted radiation appears as a short periodic burst, just like the light from a lighthouse does to a ship at sea. Our strong coupling results are valid for any strongly coupled conformal field theory with a dual classical gravity description.

• OSTI ID: 21408119
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 81; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONFORMAL INVARIANCE
COUPLING
DISTRIBUTION
DUALITY
ELECTRODYNAMICS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EMISSION
ENERGY DENSITY
EVALUATION
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GAUGE INVARIANCE
GRAVITATION
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
LEPTONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUCLEAR MODELS
PARTICLE MODELS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUARKS
RADIATIONS
SIMULATION
STRONG-COUPLING MODEL
SUPERSYMMETRY
SYMMETRY
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION
VELOCITY
WEAK-COUPLING MODEL
YANG-MILLS THEORY