High-energy jet quenching in weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasmas

TL;DR

This paper calculates the jet quenching parameter $t$ in weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasmas and uses it to refine analytic predictions for gluon bremsstrahlung and pair production rates at next-to-leading logarithmic order.

Contribution

It provides the leading-order UV-regulated value of t and extends previous results on gluon radiation and pair production to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy.

Findings

Calculated t to leading order in weak coupling.

Generalized gluon bremsstrahlung and pair production rates.

Enhanced theoretical understanding of jet quenching mechanisms.

Abstract

$\hat q$ is the average squared transverse momentum transfer per unit length to a high-energy particle traversing a QCD medium such as a quark-gluon plasma. We find the (UV-regulated) value of $\hat q$ to leading order in the weak coupling limit, $\alphas(T) \ll 1$. We then use this value to generalize previous analytic results on the gluon bremsstrahlung and pair production rates for massless high-energy particles in a weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasma, at next-to-leading logarithmic order.