14 research outputs found
Jet evolution from weak to strong coupling
Recent studies, using the AdS/CFT correspondence, of the radiation produced
by a decaying system or by an accelerated charge in the N=4 supersymmetric
Yang-Mills theory, led to a striking result: the 'supergravity backreaction',
which is supposed to describe the energy density at infinitely strong coupling,
yields exactly the same result as at zero coupling, that is, it shows no trace
of quantum broadening. We argue that this is not a real property of the
radiation at strong coupling, but an artifact of the backreaction calculation,
which is unable to faithfully capture the space-time distribution of the
radiation. This becomes obvious in the case of a decaying system ('virtual
photon'), for which the backreaction is tantamount to computing a three-point
function in the conformal gauge theory, which is independent of the coupling
since protected by symmetries. Whereas this non-renormalization property is
specific to the conformal N=4 SYM theory, we argue that the failure of the
three-point function to provide a local measurement is in fact generic: it
holds in any field theory with non-trivial interactions. To properly study a
localized distribution, one should rather compute a four-point function, as
standard in deep inelastic scattering. We substantiate these considerations
with studies of the radiation produced by the decay of a time-like photon at
both weak and strong coupling. We show that by computing four-point functions,
in perturbation theory at weak coupling and, respectively, from Witten diagrams
at strong coupling, one can follow the quantum evolution and thus demonstrate
the broadening of the energy distribution. This broadening is slow when the
coupling is weak but it proceeds as fast as possible in the limit of a strong
coupling.Comment: 49 pages, 6 figure
Aspects of the UV/IR correspondence : energy broadening and string fluctuations
We show that a source which radiates in the vacuum of the strongly coupled
N=4 SYM theory produces an energy distribution which, in the supergravity
approximation, has the same space-time pattern as the corresponding classical
distribution: the radiation propagates at the speed of light without
broadening. We illustrate this on the basis of several examples: a small
perturbation propagating down a steady string, a massless particle falling into
AdS_5, and the decay of a time-like wave-packet. A similar observation was made
in Phys. Rev. D81 (2010) 126001 for the case of a rotating string. In all these
cases, the absence of broadening is related to the fact that the energy
backreaction on the boundary arises exclusively from the bulk perturbation at,
or near, the boundary. This is so since bulk sources which propagate in AdS_5
at the speed of light do not generate any energy on the boundary. We interpret
these features as an artifact of the supergravity approximation, which fails to
encode quantum mechanical fluctuations that should be present even in the
strong coupling limit. We argue that such fluctuations should enter the dual
string theory as longitudinal string fluctuations, which are not suppressed at
strong coupling. We heuristically estimate the effects of such fluctuations and
argue that they restore the broadening of the radiation, in agreement with
expectations from both quantum mechanics and the ultraviolet/infrared
correspondence.Comment: 47 page
JIMWLK evolution in the Gaussian approximation
We demonstrate that the Balitsky-JIMWLK equations describing the high-energy
evolution of the n-point functions of the Wilson lines (the QCD scattering
amplitudes in the eikonal approximation) admit a controlled mean field
approximation of the Gaussian type, for any value of the number of colors Nc.
This approximation is strictly correct in the weak scattering regime at
relatively large transverse momenta, where it reproduces the BFKL dynamics, and
in the strong scattering regime deeply at saturation, where it properly
describes the evolution of the scattering amplitudes towards the respective
black disk limits. The approximation scheme is fully specified by giving the
2-point function (the S-matrix for a color dipole), which in turn can be
related to the solution to the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation, including at finite
Nc. Any higher n-point function with n greater than or equal to 4 can be
computed in terms of the dipole S-matrix by solving a closed system of
evolution equations (a simplified version of the respective Balitsky-JIMWLK
equations) which are local in the transverse coordinates. For simple
configurations of the projectile in the transverse plane, our new results for
the 4-point and the 6-point functions coincide with the high-energy
extrapolations of the respective results in the McLerran-Venugopalan model. One
cornerstone of our construction is a symmetry property of the JIMWLK evolution,
that we notice here for the first time: the fact that, with increasing energy,
a hadron is expanding its longitudinal support symmetrically around the
light-cone. This corresponds to invariance under time reversal for the
scattering amplitudes.Comment: v2: 45 pages, 4 figures, various corrections, section 4.4 updated, to
appear in JHE
Holographic dual of collimated radiation
We propose a new and simple method of estimating the radiation due to an
accelerated quark in a strongly coupled medium, within the framework of the
AdS/CFT correspondence. In particular, we offer a heuristic explanation of the
collimated nature of synchrotron radiation produced by a circling quark, which
was recently studied in Phys.Rev.D81 (2010) 126001. The gravitational dual of
such quark is a coiling string in AdS, whose backreaction on the spacetime
geometry remains tightly confined, as if 'beamed' towards the boundary. While
this appears to contradict conventional expectations from the scale/radius
duality, we resolve the issue by observing that the backreaction of a
relativistic string is reproduced by a superposition of gravitational shock
waves. We further demonstrate that this proposal allows us to reduce the
problem of computing the boundary stress tensor to merely calculating geodesics
in AdS, as opposed to solving linearized Einstein's equations.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, invited contribution to the New Journal of
Physics Focus Issue "Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: From Ultracold
Quantum Gases to QCD Plasmas
Regge Field Theory in zero transverse dimensions: loops versus "net" diagrams
Toy models of interacting Pomerons with triple and quaternary Pomeron
vertices in zero transverse dimension are investigated. Numerical solutions for
eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the corresponding Hamiltonians are obtained,
providing the quantum solution for the scattering amplitude in both models. The
equations of motion for the Lagrangians of the theories are also considered and
the classical solutions of the equations are found. Full two-point Green
functions ("effective" Pomeron propagator) and amplitude of diffractive
dissociation process are calculated in the framework of RFT-0 approach. The
importance of the loops contribution in the amplitude at different values of
the model parameters is discussed as well as the difference between the models
with and without quaternary Pomeron vertex.Comment: 34 pages, 36 figure
Holographic Lessons for Quark Dynamics
We give a brief overview of recent results obtained through the gauge/gravity
correspondence, concerning the propagation of a heavy quark in strongly-coupled
conformal field theories (such as N=4 super-Yang-Mills), both at zero and
finite temperature. In the vacuum, we discuss energy loss, radiation damping,
signal propagation and radiation-induced fluctuations. In the presence of a
thermal plasma, our emphasis is on early-time energy loss, screening and
quark-antiquark evolution after pair creation. Throughout, quark dynamics is
seen to be efficiently encapsulated in the usual string worldsheet dynamics.Comment: Invited review for a Journal of Physics G topical volume on
gauge/gravity duality applications to QCD matter and ultrarelativistic
heavy-ion collisions. v2: Reference adde