Radiative energy loss in a finite dynamical QCD medium

TL;DR

This paper calculates the radiative energy loss of a quark jet in a finite, dynamical QCD medium, showing that medium dynamics significantly affect jet suppression predictions in heavy ion collisions.

Contribution

It provides the first-order opacity calculation of energy loss in a finite dynamical medium, highlighting the importance of medium dynamics and finite size effects.

Findings

Finite size corrections reduce energy loss compared to infinite media.

Energy loss remains significantly larger in dynamical than static media.

Finite size effects cause a non-linear path length dependence.

Abstract

The radiative energy loss of a quark jet traversing a finite size QCD medium with dynamical constituents is calculated to first order in opacity. Although finite size corrections reduce the energy loss relative to an infinite dynamical QCD medium, under realistic conditions it remains significantly larger than in a static medium. Quantitative predictions of jet suppression in relativistic heavy ion collisions must therefore account for the dynamics of the medium's constituents. Finite size effects are shown to induce a non-linear path length dependence of the energy loss. Our results suggest a simple general mapping between energy loss expressions for static and dynamical QCD media.