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Drag force in a strongly coupled anisotropic plasma

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Abstract

We calculate the drag force experienced by an infinitely massive quark propagating at constant velocity through an anisotropic, strongly coupled \( \mathcal{N} = 4 \) plasma by means of its gravity dual. We find that the gluon cloud trailing behind the quark is generally misaligned with the quark velocity, and that the latter is also misaligned with the force. The drag coefficient μ can be larger or smaller than the corresponding isotropic value depending on the velocity and the direction of motion. In the ultra-relativistic limit we find that generically μ ∝ p. We discuss the conditions under which this behaviour may extend to more general situations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Física Fonamental & Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICC), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Martí i Franquès 1, E-08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Mariano Chernicoff, Daniel Fernández & David Mateos

  2. Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WA, UK

    Mariano Chernicoff

  3. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Passeig Lluís Companys 23, E-08010, Barcelona, Spain

    David Mateos

  4. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Diego Trancanelli

  5. Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, 05314-970, São Paulo, Brazil

    Diego Trancanelli

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  1. Mariano Chernicoff
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  2. Daniel Fernández
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  3. David Mateos
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  4. Diego Trancanelli
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Correspondence to Diego Trancanelli.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1202.3696

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Chernicoff, M., Fernández, D., Mateos, D. et al. Drag force in a strongly coupled anisotropic plasma. J. High Energ. Phys. 2012, 100 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2012)100

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2012)100

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