Ionization of Binary Bound States in a Strongly Coupled Quark-Gluon Plasma

Abstract

Although at temperatures $T\gg \Lambda_{QCD}$ the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is a gas of weakly interacting quasiparticles (modulo long-range magnetism), it is strongly interacting (sQGP) in the temperature range $(1-3) T_c$. One aspect of these interactions is the existence of many binary bound states of quasiparticles. Only $\bar q q$ ones have been so far directly seen on the lattice, for charmed and light quarks, but other attractive channels in $ qg, gg$ are likely to have them as well. It was argued in our previous paper that such bound states account for a significant part of the bulk properties such as density and pressure. Using the same model, we evaluate the energy loss $dE/dx$ due to the ionization of these states. We found that it is substantial, but only in the narrow interval of temperatures $T=(1.4-1.7)T_c$. In contrast to that, we show that radiative and elastic losses are not likely to be modified much by binding, as the total density of color charges is close to what it is for weakly coupled quasiparticles. These distinctions would be important for understanding the energy dependence of jet quenching.