Holographic light quark jet quenching in flavor resolved QCD plasmas
Abstract
We study light quark energy loss in a quark-gluon plasma using the holographic falling-string framework on a machine-learning-calibrated Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton background for three flavor configurations: pure glue, two-flavor QCD, and full QCD with strangeness. Stopping distances are computed from null geodesics as functions of reduced temperature T/Tc and baryon chemical potential μ. For T/Tc>1.03, the flavor ordering of the integrated stopping distance stabilizes to Nf=2+1>Nf=2>Nf=0, corresponding to the quenching hierarchy Nf=0>Nf=2>Nf=2+1. This agrees with the flavor ordering obtained from the shooting-string dE/dx when both are expressed in the reduced-temperature framework, providing a cross-check between local and integrated observables within the same holographic background. Near T/Tc≃1, the behavior is more complex due to the interplay between the a and b terms in A(z) and the different Tc values of the three systems. Finite baryon chemical potential monotonically shortens stopping distances and enhances quenching, with enhanced sensitivity near the QCD critical endpoint, consistent with expectations from RHIC beam energy scan measurements. We discuss the geometric origin of the high-T/Tc flavor ordering and possible extensions to heavy-ion transport simulations.
Related
- Collective flavor conversion in dense neutrino plasmas
- Spatially resolved extreme ultraviolet emission and opacity effects in laser-produced zinc plasmas
- A critical coupling for the magnetic instability of holographic SU(2) plasmas
- Nonlinear susceptibility for stimulated light scattering in plasmas
- Systematic Bayesian investigation of the (2+1)-flavor QCD phase transition in a holographic model
BibTeX
@misc{zhu2026holographic,
title = {{Holographic light quark jet quenching in flavor resolved QCD plasmas}},
author = {Huwei Zhu and Ke Ma and Zi-qiang Zhang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.04541},
eprint = {2608.04541},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.04541},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Holographic light quark jet quenching in flavor resolved QCD plasmas
AU - Huwei Zhu
AU - Ke Ma
AU - Zi-qiang Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.04541
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.04541
AB - We study light quark energy loss in a quark-gluon plasma using the holographic falling-string framework on a machine-learning-calibrated Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton background for three flavor configurations: pure glue, two-flavor QCD, and full QCD with strangeness. Stopping distances are computed from null geodesics as functions of reduced temperature T/T_c and baryon chemical potential μ. For T/T_c>1.03, the flavor ordering of the integrated stopping distance stabilizes to N_f=2+1>N_f=2>N_f=0, corresponding to the quenching hierarchy N_f=0>N_f=2>N_f=2+1. This agrees with the flavor ordering obtained from the shooting-string dE/dx when both are expressed in the reduced-temperature framework, providing a cross-check between local and integrated observables within the same holographic background. Near T/T_c≃1, the behavior is more complex due to the interplay between the a and b terms in A(z) and the different T_c values of the three systems. Finite baryon chemical potential monotonically shortens stopping distances and enhances quenching, with enhanced sensitivity near the QCD critical endpoint, consistent with expectations from RHIC beam energy scan measurements. We discuss the geometric origin of the high-T/T_c flavor ordering and possible extensions to heavy-ion transport simulations.
ER -