"Quarkonium dissociation by anisotropy in a strongly coupled CFT"
Dr. Mariano Chernicoff
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University
We compute the screening length for heavy mesons moving through an
anisotropic, strongly coupled N=4 super Yang-Mills plasma by means of its
gravity dual. We present the results for arbitrary velocities and
orientations of the mesons, as well as for arbitrary values of the
anisotropy. For generic motion we find that: (i) mesons dissociate above a
certain critical value of the anisotropy, even at zero temperature; (ii)
there is a limiting velocity for mesons in the plasma, even at zero
temperature; (iii) in the ultra-relativistic limit the screening length
scales as (1-v2)^{1/2}, in contrast with the isotropic result (1-v2)^{1/4}.