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

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 p2⊥w. 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.