Optical properties of an anisotropic hot QCD medium

Abstract

The present investigation involves explorations on the chromo-dielectric properties of the hot QCD medium produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions in terms of refractive index. The isotropic/equilibrium modelling is done within an effective quasi-particle model of hot QCD medium. The possibilities of negative refraction in the medium are also explored in terms of the Depine-Lakhtakia index. The anisotropic aspects of the hot QCD medium are incorporated by introducing the anisotropy in a particular direction. That makes the medium quite similar to uniaxial crystals, and hence we observe phenomenon of birefringence ( two distinct refractive indices in the anisotropic case). Interestingly, both anisotropy and medium effects play significant roles in deciding the optical properties of the hot QCD/Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) medium.