Radiation of a circulating quark in strongly coupled N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory

Abstract

The energy density and angular distribution of power radiated by a quark undergoing circular motion in strongly coupled N = 4 supersymmetric Yang‐Mills (SYM) theory is computed using gauge∕gravity duality. The results are qualitatively similar to that of synchrotron radiation produced by an electron in circular motion in classical electrodynamics: At large velocities the quark emits radiation in a narrow beam along its velocity vector with a characteristic opening angle α∼1∕γ and radial thickness scaling like ∼ 1/γ3.