Radiative heavy quark energy loss in a dynamical QCD medium

TL;DR

This paper calculates the radiative energy loss of heavy quarks in a dynamical QCD medium, revealing it is nearly twice that in a static medium, emphasizing the importance of medium dynamics in jet quenching predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first calculation of heavy quark energy loss in a dynamical QCD medium, showing significant differences from static medium models.

Findings

Dynamical medium nearly doubles energy loss compared to static models

Highlights importance of medium dynamics in jet quenching predictions

Quantitative results relevant for RHIC and LHC experiments

Abstract

The computation of radiative energy loss in a dynamically screened QCD medium is a key ingredient for obtaining reliable predictions for jet quenching in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. We calculate, to first order in the opacity, the energy loss suffered by a heavy quark traveling through an infinite and time-independent QCD medium and show that the result for a dynamical medium is almost twice that obtained previously for a medium consisting of randomly distributed static scattering centers. A quantitative description of jet suppression in RHIC and LHC experiments thus must correctly account for the dynamics of the medium's constituents.