Princeton University High Energy Theory Seminar

Abstract: Heavy quarks propagating through quark-gluon plasma provide a unique, experimentally accessible opportunity to study the real-time dynamics of QCD in its strongly coupled regime. In the infinite heavy quark mass limit, the momentum change probability of a heavy quark in a thermal environment is characterized by the thermal expectation value of a Wilson loop featuring two long antiparallel timelike Wilson lines (along the direction defined by the heavy quark 4-velocity) with Wightman operator ordering. I will discuss the formulation of this Wilson loop, the KMS condition it satisfies, its calculation at weak coupling (in QCD and in N=4 SYM), and its calculation at strong coupling (in N=4 SYM via AdS/CFT). Time permitting, I will discuss these calculations in the context of heavy quark phenomenology in heavy ion collisions.