Monte Carlo Simulation for Elastic Energy Loss of High-Energy Partons in Quark-Gluon Plasma

TL;DR

This paper uses Monte Carlo simulations based on perturbative QCD to study elastic energy loss of high-energy partons in quark-gluon plasma, finding it insufficient to explain observed suppression in heavy ion collisions.

Contribution

Developed a Monte Carlo simulation incorporating perturbative QCD and hydrodynamical models to analyze elastic energy loss mechanisms in quark-gluon plasma.

Findings

Elastic energy loss alone cannot explain the observed suppression.

Initial state fluctuations have minimal impact on energy loss.

Incoherent elastic collisions are incompatible with experimental data.

Abstract

We examine the significance of $2 \rightarrow 2$ partonic collisions as the suppression mechanism of high-energy partons in the strongly interacting medium formed in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. For this purpose, we have developed a Monte Carlo simulation describing the interactions of perturbatively produced, non-eikonally propagating high-energy partons with the quarks and gluons from the expanding QCD medium. The partonic collision rates are computed in leading-order perturbative QCD (pQCD), while three different hydrodynamical scenarios are used to model the medium. We compare our results with the suppression observed in $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV Au+Au collisions at the BNL-RHIC. We find the incoherent nature of elastic energy loss incompatible with the measured data and the effect of the initial state fluctuations small.