The Heavy Quark Free Energy in QCD and in Gauge Theories with Gravity Duals

Abstract

We show that the Polyakov loop approaches its asymptotic value at high temperatures {\it from below} in any strongly-coupled gauge theory at large $N_c$ with a dual supergravity description. In these theories the Polyakov loop can be used to define a quantity that behaves as a free energy of a heavy quark in the medium. This should be compared to the recent lattice results in pure glue SU(3) theory at high temperatures where the Polyakov loop approaches its non-interacting limit {\it from above}. We show that the "heavy quark free energy" obtained from the renormalized loop computed on the lattice does not behave as a true thermodynamic free energy. We conjecture that this should always be the case in asymptotically free gauge theories.

13 pages, no figures, new references added, more detailed discussion of results

References in corpus (17)

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Holographic calculation of the QCD crossover temperature in a magnetic field
• Suppression of baryon diffusion and transport in a baryon rich strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma
• Thermal entropy of a quark-antiquark pair above and below deconfinement from a dynamical holographic QCD model
• Anisotropic heavy quark potential in strongly-coupled $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM in a magnetic field
• Interplay between the holographic QCD phase diagram and mutual & $n$-partite information
• Debye screening mass near deconfinement from holography
• Free Energy of a Heavy Quark-Antiquark Pair in a Thermal Medium from AdS/CFT
• Polyakov loop and heavy quark entropy in strong magnetic fields from holographic black hole engineering
• Conformal Anomaly in Yang-Mills Theory and Thermodynamics of Open Confining Strings
• Equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties of the QGP in a magnetic field: a holographic approach