Heavy quark diffusion in a Polyakov loop plasma

We calculate the transport coefficients, drag, and momentum diffusion of a heavy quark in a thermalized plasma of light quarks in the background of a Polyakov loop. The quark thermal mass and the gluon Debye mass are calculated in a nontrivial Polyakov loop background. The constituent quark masses and the Polyakov loop are estimated within a Polyakov loop quark-meson (PQM) model. The relevant scattering amplitudes for heavy quarks and light partons in the background of a Polyakov loop have been estimated within the matrix model. We have also compared the results with the Polyakov loop parameter estimated from lattice QCD simulations. We have studied the temperature and momentum dependence of heavy quark drag and diffusion coefficients. It is observed that the temperature dependence of the drag coefficient is quite weak, which may play a key role in understanding heavy quark observables at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and Large Hadron Collider energies.