Quark scattering off quarks and hadrons

TL;DR

This paper calculates in-medium elastic quark scattering processes using a Polyakov-loop-extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, providing insights into quark interactions relevant for heavy ion collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed calculation of quark-quark and quark-pion scattering within a specific effective model, emphasizing flavor, energy, and temperature dependence, and offers initial estimates of quark-pion cross sections.

Findings

Quark-quark scattering cross sections depend on flavor, energy, and temperature.

First estimates of quark-pion cross sections are provided.

Comparison with other models highlights differences in scattering behavior.

Abstract

The in-medium elastic scattering $qq\to qq, q\bar{q}\to q\bar{q}$ and $\bar{q}\bar{q}\to \bar{q}\bar{q}$ is calculated within the two-flavor Polyakov-loop-extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. The integral and differential quark-quark scattering, its energy and temperature dependence are considered and their flavor dependence is emphasized. The comparison with results of other approaches is presented. The consideration is implemented to the case of quark-pion scattering characterizing the interaction between quarks and hadrons in a kinetic multiphase treatment, and the first estimate of the quark-pion cross sections is given. A possible application of the obtained results to heavy ion collisions is shortly discussed.