Energy loss of a heavy quark moving through N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma

Abstract

We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to determine the rate of energy loss of a heavy quark moving through N=4 SU(N_c) supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma at large 't Hooft coupling. Using the dual description of the quark as a classical string ending on a D7-brane, we use a complementary combination of analytic and numerical techniques to determine the friction coefficient as a function of quark mass. Provided strongly coupled N=4 Yang-Mills plasma is a good model for hot, strongly coupled QCD, our results may be relevant for charm and bottom physics at RHIC.

Comments: 34 + 7 pages, 17 figures; v2 refs added, typos fixed, comment about the jet quenching parameter added; v3 published version, improved discussion, typos fixed