Quenching parameter in a holographic thermal QCD

We have calculated the quenching parameter, $\hat{q}$ in a model-independent way using the gauge-gravity duality. In earlier calculations, the geometry in the gravity side at finite temperature was usually taken as the pure AdS blackhole metric for which the dual gauge theory becomes conformally invariant unlike QCD. Therefore we use a metric which incorporates the fundamental quarks by embedding the coincident D7 branes in the Klebanov-Tseytlin background and a finite temperature is switched on by inserting a black hole into the background, known as OKS-BH metric. Further inclusion of an additional UV cap to the metric prepares the dual gauge theory to run similar to thermal QCD. Moreover $\hat{q}$ is usually defined in the literature from the Glauber-model perturbative QCD evaluation of the Wilson loop, which has no reasons to hold if the coupling is large and is thus against the main idea of gauge-gravity duality. Thus we use an appropriate definition of $\hat{q}$: $\hat{q} L^- = 1/L^2$, where $L$ is the separation for which the Wilson loop is equal to some specific value. The above two refinements cause $\hat{q}$ to vary with the temperature as $T^4$ always and to depend linearly on the light-cone time $L^-$ with an additional ($1/L^-$) correction term in the short-distance limit whereas in the long-distance limit, it depends only linearly on $L^-$ with no correction term. These observations agree with other holographic calculations directly or indirectly.Comment: 16 page

Thermomagnetic properties and Bjorken expansion of hot QCD matter in a strong magnetic field

In this work we have studied the effects of an external strong magnetic field on the thermodynamic and magnetic properties of a hot QCD matter and then explored these effects on the subsequent hydrodynamic expansion of the said matter once produced in the ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. For that purpose, we have computed the quark and gluon self-energies up to one loop in the strong magnetic field, using the HTL approximation with two hard scales - temperature and magnetic field, which in turn compute the effective propagators for quarks and gluons, respectively. Hence the quark and gluon contributions to the free energy are obtained from the respective propagators and finally derive the equation of state (EOS) by calculating the pressure and energy density. We have found that the speed of sound is enhanced due to the presence of strong magnetic field and this effect will be later exploited in the hydrodynamics. Thereafter the magnetic properties are studied from the free energy of the matter, where the magnetization is found to increase linearly with the magnetic field, thus hints the paramagnetic behavior. The temperature dependence of the magnetization is also studied, where the magnetization is found to increase slowly with the temperature. Finally, to see how a strong magnetic field could affect the hydrodynamic evolution, we have revisited the Bjorken boost-invariant picture with our paramagnetic EOS as an input in the equation of motion for the energy-momentum conservation. We have noticed that the energy density evolves faster than in the absence of strong magnetic field, i.e. cooling becomes faster, which could have implications on the heavy-ion phenomenology. As mentioned earlier, this observation can be understood by the enhancement of the speed of sound.Comment: 37 pages with 5 figure

Effect of magnetic field on the charge and thermal transport properties of hot and dense QCD matter

We have studied the effect of strong magnetic field on the charge and thermal transport properties of hot QCD matter at finite chemical potential. For this purpose, we have calculated the electrical ($\sigma_{\rm el}$) and thermal ($\kappa$) conductivities using kinetic theory in the relaxation time approximation, where the interactions are subsumed through the distribution functions within the quasiparticle model at finite temperature, strong magnetic field and finite chemical potential. This study helps to understand the impacts of strong magnetic field and chemical potential on the local equilibrium by the Knudsen number ($\Omega$) through $\kappa$ and on the relative behavior between thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity through the Lorenz number ($L$) in the Wiedemann-Franz law. We have observed that, both $\sigma_{\rm el}$ and $\kappa$ get increased in the presence of strong magnetic field, and the additional presence of chemical potential further increases their magnitudes, where $\sigma_{\rm el}$ shows decreasing trend with the temperature, opposite to its increasing behavior in the isotropic medium, whereas $\kappa$ increases slowly with the temperature, contrary to its fast increase in the isotropic medium. The variation in $\kappa$ explains the decrease of the Knudsen number with the increase of the temperature. However, in the presence of strong magnetic field and finite chemical potential, $\Omega$ gets enhanced and approaches unity, thus, the system may move slightly away from the equilibrium state. The Lorenz number ($\kappa/(\sigma_{\rm el} T))$ in the abovementioned regime of strong magnetic field and finite chemical potential shows linear enhancement with the temperature and has smaller magnitude than the isotropic one, thus, it describes the violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law for the hot and dense QCD matter in the presence of a strong magnetic field.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figure

Heavy Quark Potential in a static and strong homogeneous magnetic field

We have investigated the properties of quarkonia in a thermal QCD medium in the background of strong magnetic field. For that purpose, we employ the Schwinger proper-time quark propagator in the lowest Landau level to calculate the one-loop gluon self-energy, which in the sequel gives the the effective gluon propagator. As an artifact of strong magnetic field approximation ($eB>>T^2$ and $eB>>m^2$), the Debye mass for massless flavors is found to depend only on the magnetic field which is the dominant scale in comparison to the scales prevalent in the thermal medium. However, for physical quark masses, it depends on both magnetic field and temperature in a low temperature and high magnetic field but the temperature dependence is very meagre and becomes independent of temperature beyond a certain temperature and magnetic field. With the above mentioned ingredients, the potential between heavy quark ($Q$) and anti-quark ($\bar Q$) is obtained in a hot QCD medium in the presence of strong magnetic field by correcting both short and long range components of the potential in real-time formalism. It is found that the long range part of the quarkonium potential is affected much more by magnetic field as compared to the short range part. This observation facilitates us to estimate the magnetic field beyond which the potential will be too weak to bind $Q\bar Q$ together. For example, the $J/\psi$ is dissociated at $eB \sim$ 10 $m_\pi^2$ and $\Upsilon$ is dissociated at $eB \sim$ 100 $m_\pi^2$ whereas its excited states, $\psi^\prime$ and $\Upsilon^\prime$ are dissociated at smaller magnetic field $eB= m_\pi^2$, $13 m_\pi^2$, respectively.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure