Light quark energy loss in strongly coupledN=4supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma

Abstract

We compute the penetration depth of a light quark moving through a large ${N}_{\mathrm{c}}$, strongly coupled $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma using gauge/gravity duality and a combination of analytic and numerical techniques. We find that the maximum distance a quark with energy $E$ can travel through a plasma is given by $\ensuremath{\Delta}{x}_{\mathrm{max}}(E)=(\mathcal{C}/T)(E/T\sqrt{\ensuremath{\lambda}}{)}^{1/3}$ with $\mathcal{C}\ensuremath{\approx}0.5$.