Holographic Brownian motion and time scales in strongly coupled plasmas

Authors
Publication date 2010
Series ITFA, 10-06
Number of pages 61
Publisher Amsterdam: Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITFA), University of Amsterdam
Organisations
  • Faculty of Science (FNWI) - Institute of Physics (IoP) - Institute for Theoretical Physics Amsterdam (ITFA)
Abstract
We study Brownian motion of a heavy quark in field theory plasma in the AdS/CFT setup and discuss the time scales characterizing the interaction between the Brownian particle and plasma constituents. In particular, the mean-free-path time is related to the connected 4-point function of the random force felt by the Brownian particle. By holographically computing the 4-point function and regularizing the IR divergence appearing in the computation, we write down a general formula for the mean-free-path time, and apply it to the STU black hole which corresponds to plasma charged under three U(1) R-charges. The result indicates that the Brownian particle collides with many plasma constituents simultaneously.
Document type Working paper
Language English
Published at http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.2429
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