Universal Equilibration Condition for Heavy Quarks

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Rajagopal, Krishna, Scheihing-Hitschfeld, Bruno, Wiedemann, Urs Achim
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Rajagopal, Krishna
Scheihing-Hitschfeld, Bruno
Wiedemann, Urs Achim
author_facet Rajagopal, Krishna
Scheihing-Hitschfeld, Bruno
Wiedemann, Urs Achim
contents Kinetic equilibration at late times is physically required for heavy particles in a finite temperature medium. In Fokker-Planck dynamics, it is ensured by the Einstein relation between the drag and longitudinal momentum diffusion coefficients. However, in certain gauge field theories, this relation is violated at any nonzero heavy quark velocity. Recent work in strongly coupled $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM gauge theory shows that the Kolmogorov equation for the heavy quark phase space distribution (that reduces to Fokker-Planck form upon truncating the momentum transfer probability distribution to second moments) does equilibrate even though the Fokker-Planck equation does not. Going beyond these (to date theory-specific) insights, we derive a universal equilibration condition for the kernel of the Kolmogorov equation and, consequently, for the momentum transfer probability distribution that holds in any quantum field theory with any coupling strength. This condition, which is the generalization of the Einstein relation to quantum field theories which feature non-Gaussian fluctuations, reveals that the asymmetry between energy loss and energy gain in the momentum transfer probability distribution takes a simple, theory-independent, form.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_21139
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Universal Equilibration Condition for Heavy Quarks
Rajagopal, Krishna
Scheihing-Hitschfeld, Bruno
Wiedemann, Urs Achim
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Nuclear Theory
Kinetic equilibration at late times is physically required for heavy particles in a finite temperature medium. In Fokker-Planck dynamics, it is ensured by the Einstein relation between the drag and longitudinal momentum diffusion coefficients. However, in certain gauge field theories, this relation is violated at any nonzero heavy quark velocity. Recent work in strongly coupled $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM gauge theory shows that the Kolmogorov equation for the heavy quark phase space distribution (that reduces to Fokker-Planck form upon truncating the momentum transfer probability distribution to second moments) does equilibrate even though the Fokker-Planck equation does not. Going beyond these (to date theory-specific) insights, we derive a universal equilibration condition for the kernel of the Kolmogorov equation and, consequently, for the momentum transfer probability distribution that holds in any quantum field theory with any coupling strength. This condition, which is the generalization of the Einstein relation to quantum field theories which feature non-Gaussian fluctuations, reveals that the asymmetry between energy loss and energy gain in the momentum transfer probability distribution takes a simple, theory-independent, form.
title Universal Equilibration Condition for Heavy Quarks
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Nuclear Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.21139