Elsevier

Nuclear Physics B

Volume 484, Issues 1–2, 20 January 1997, Pages 265-282
Nuclear Physics B

Radiative energy loss and p-broadening of high energy partons in nuclei

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Abstract

The medium-induced p-broadening and induced gluon radiation spectrum of a high energy quark or gluon traversing a large nucleus is studied. Multiple scattering of the high energy parton in the nucleus is treated in the Glauber approximation. We show that −dE/dz, the radiative energy loss of the parton per unit length, grows as L, the length of the nuclear matter, as does the characteristic transverse momentum squared of the parton p2w. We find −dE/dz = 18αsNcp2⊥w holds independent of the details of the parton-nucleon scatterings so long as L is large and so long as perturbative QCD applies at short distances. Numerical estimates suggest that p-broadening and energy loss may be significantly enhanced in hot matter as compared to cold matter, thus making the study of such quantities a possible signal for quark-gluon plasma formation.

PACS

12.38.Bx
24.85.+p

Keywords

Radiative energy loss
Nuclear matter

Cited by (0)

3

Laboratoire associáu Centre de la Recherche Scientifique, UR D0063.

1

Permanent address: Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina 188350, St. Petersburg, Russia.

2

Supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant DE-FG02-94ER-40819.