Abstract
We study the diffusion of charm quarks in the early stage of high energy nuclear collisions at the RHIC and the LHC. The main novelty of the present study is the introduction of the color current carried by the heavy quarks that propagate in the evolving glasma (EG), which is responsible of the energy loss via polarization of the medium. We compute the transverse momentum broadening, ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{p}$, of charm in the prethermalization stage, and the impact of the diffusion on the nuclear modification factor in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The net effect of energy loss is marginal in the prethermalization stage. The study is completed by the calculation of coordinate spreading, ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{x}$, and by a comparison with Langevin dynamics. ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{p}$ in EG overshoots the result of standard Langevin dynamics at the end of the prehydro regime. We interpret this as a result of memory of the color force acting on the charm quarks that implies ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{p}\ensuremath{\propto}{t}^{2}$. Moreover, ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{x}\ensuremath{\propto}{t}^{2}$ in the prehydro stage shows that the charm quark in the EG is in the regime of ballistic diffusion.
Highlights
The study of the prethermalization stage of the system produced in high energy nuclear collisions is one of the most exciting research topics related to the physics of relativistic heavy ion collisions
The main novelty of the present study is the introduction of the color current carried by the heavy quarks that propagate in the evolving glasma (EG), which is responsible of the energy loss via polarization of the medium
The effect of the backreaction, due to the color current, on the charm quark is evident in the small pT case: the evolution of dN=dpT when the current is taken into account is slower with respect to the case in which the current is not considered, as expected by a drag force; this is seen by the naked eye by examining both the evolution of the peak value and the broadening of dN=dpT
Summary
The study of the prethermalization stage of the system produced in high energy nuclear collisions is one of the most exciting research topics related to the physics of relativistic heavy ion collisions. We compute the effect of the color current on the nuclear modification factor of charm in the EG, on the momentum broadening and on the transverse coordinates diffusion This is achieved by adding this current to the CYM equations, that we solve consistently with the kinetic equations of motion of the heavy quarks. The motion of charm in the EG is dominated by diffusion because the equilibration time, τtherm 1⁄4 1=γ, is much larger than the lifetime of the EG, as it happens for the standard Brownian motion We remark that this addition solves the classical problem completely and consistently: this procedure adds the classical radiation produced by the moving heavy quarks in a consistent way, and is qualitatively similar to what one should do in classical electrodynamics for the problem of the propagation of a classical electric charge in a classical electromagnetic field. VI we summarize our work and discuss possible future improvements
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