We study weakly nonlinear wave perturbations propagating in a cold nonrelativistic and magnetized ideal quark-gluon plasma. We show that such perturbations can be described by the Ostrovsky equation. The derivation of this equation is presented for the baryon density perturbations. Then we show that the generalized nonlinear Schr{o}dinger (NLS) equation can be derived from the Ostrovsky equation for the description of quasi-harmonic wave trains. This equation is modulationally stable for the wave number $k < k_m$ and unstable for $k > k_m$, where $k_m$ is the wave number where the group velocity has a maximum. We study numerically the dynamics of initial wave packets with the different carrier wave numbers and demonstrate that depending on the initial parameters they can evolve either into the NLS envelope solitons or into dispersive wave trains.
We present a calculation of the heavy quark transport coefficients in a quark-gluon plasma under the presence of a strong external magnetic field, within the Lowest Landau Level (LLL) approximation. In particular, we apply the Hard Thermal Loop (HTL) technique for the resummed effective gluon propagator, generalized for a hot and magnetized medium. Using the derived effective HTL gluon propagator and the LLL quark propagator we analytically derive the full results for the longitudinal and transverse momentum diffusion coefficients as well as the energy losses for charm and bottom quarks beyond the static limit. We also show numerical results for these coefficients in two special cases where the heavy quark is moving either parallel or perpendicular to the external magnetic field.
In the deconfined regime of a non-Abelian gauge theory at nonzero temperature, previously it was argued that if a (gauge invariant) source is added to generate nonzero holonomy, that this source must be linear for small holonomy. The simplest example of this is the second Bernoulli polynomial. However, then there is a conundrum in computing the free energy to $sim g^3$ in the coupling constant $g$, as part of the free energy is discontinuous as the holonomy vanishes. In this paper we investigate two ways of generating the second Bernoulli polynomial dynamically: as a mass derivative of an auxiliary field, and from two dimensional ghosts embedded isotropically in four dimensions. Computing the holonomous hard thermal loop (HHTL) in the gluon self-energy, we find that the limit of small holonomy is only well behaved for two dimensional ghosts, with a free energy which to $sim g^3$ is continuous as the holonomy vanishes.
Quark-gluon plasma produced at the early stage of ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is unstable, if weakly coupled, due to the anisotropy of its momentum distribution. Chromomagnetic fields are spontaneously generated and can reach magnitudes much exceeding typical values of the fields in equilibrated plasma. We consider a high energy test parton traversing an unstable plasma that is populated with strong fields. We study the momentum broadening parameter $hat q$ which determines the radiative energy loss of the test parton. We develop a formalism which gives $hat q$ as the solution of an initial value problem, and we focus on extremely oblate plasmas which are physically relevant for relativistic heavy ion collisions. The parameter $hat q$ is found to be strongly dependent on time. For short times it is of the order of the equilibrium value, but at later times $hat q$ grows exponentially due to the interaction of the test parton with unstable modes and becomes much bigger than the value in equilibrium. The momentum broadening is also strongly directionally dependent and is largest when the test parton velocity is transverse to the beam axis. Consequences of our findings for the phenomenology of jet quenching in relativistic heavy ion collisions are briefly discussed.
This review cover our current understanding of strongly coupled Quark-Gluon Plasma (sQGP), especially theoretical progress in (i) explaining the RHIC data by hydrodynamics, (ii) describing lattice data using electric-magnetic duality; (iii) understanding of gauge-string duality known as AdS/CFT and its application for conformal plasma. In view of interdisciplinary nature of the subject, we include brief introduction into several topics for pedestrians. Some fundamental questions addressed are: Why is sQGP such a good liquid? What is the nature of (de)confinement and what do we know about magnetic objects creating it? Do they play any important role in sQGP physics? Can we understand the AdS/CFT predictions, from the gauge theory side? Can they be tested experimentally? Can AdS/CFT duality help us understand rapid equilibration/entropy production? Can we work out a complete dynamical gravity dual to heavy ion collisions?
Monopole-like objects have been identified in multiple lattice studies, and there is now a significant amount of literature on their importance in phenomenology. Some analytic indications of their role, however, are still missing. The t Hooft-Polyakov monopoles, originally derived in the Georgi-Glashow model, are an important dynamical ingredient in theories with extended supersymmetry ${cal N} = 2,,4$, and help explain the issues related with electric-magnetic duality. There is no such solution in QCD-like theories without scalar fields. However, all of these theories have instantons and their finite-$T$ constituents known as instanton-dyons (or instanton-monopoles). The latter leads to semiclassical partition functions, which for ${cal N} = 2,,4$ theories were shown to be identical (Poisson dual) to the partition function for monopoles. We show how, in a pure gauge theory, the semiclassical instanton-based partition function can also be Poisson-transformed into a partition function, interpreted as the one of moving and rotating monopoles.