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Quantum vs semiclassical description of in-QGP quarkonia in the quantum Brownian regime

Aoumeur Daddi Hammou1,*, Stéphane Delorme2,3,†, Jean-Paul Blaizot4,‡, Pol Bernard Gossiaux1,§, and Thierry Gousset1,∥

  • *Contact author: daddiham@subatech.in2p3.fr
  • †Contact author: stephane.delorme@us.edu.pl
  • ‡Contact author: jean-paul.blaizot@ipht.fr
  • §Contact author: gossiaux@subatech.in2p3.fr
  • ∥Contact author: gousset@subatech.in2p3.fr
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 014017 – Published 14 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kyc5-mrj3

Abstract

In this work, we explore the range of validity of the semiclassical approximation of a quantum master equation designed to describe the cc¯ dynamics in a quark-gluon plasma at various temperatures, in the quantum Brownian regime. We perform a comparative study of various properties, e.g., the charmonia yield, of the Wigner density obtained both with the Lindblad equation and with the associated semiclassical Fokker-Planck equation. The semiclassical description is found to reproduce with a remarkable accuracy the results obtained through the full quantum description. We show that, to a large extent, this can be attributed to the nonunitary components of the dynamics that result from the contact of the cc¯ subsystem with the thermal quark-gluon bath, leading to a rapid classicalization of the subsystem.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 014017– Published 14 January, 2026
  • Received 13 July 2025
  • Accepted 26 November 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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