Speaker
Description
An excellent probe for the thermalization of the QGP and its dynamics are heavy quarks, since they are created during the initial stages of the collision. If given enough time, these heavy quarks will thermalize with the QGP medium and follow its collective dynamics. The precise thermalization dynamics is hard to describe from first principles, especially at low momenta, since it is governed by non-perturbative QCD in this regime. An alternative way of describing this strongly coupled regime is via an effective field theory (EFT), based on the interaction of the heavy quarks with the collective modes of the QGP (phonons, arXiv:2510.13942). In this work we use this EFT and its description of the interactions between phonons and heavy quarks to calculate the collision kernel appearing in the Boltzmann equation. Then, we solve the Boltzmann equation for the heavy quark distribution and examine its thermalization in the QGP via soft phonon interactions. Finally, we compare the thermalization process and rate via phonon exchange with that obtained from collision kernels based on perturbative QCD calculations.
| Is this an experimental talk? | No |
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| Is this on behalf of a collaboration? | No |
| Are you willing to present as a poster if it is not selected for oral presentation? | Yes |