Momentum broadening of partons on the light cone from the lattice

TL;DR

This paper presents a lattice-based method to extract the jet quenching parameter, which characterizes how high-energy partons gain transverse momentum in quark-gluon plasma, using gauge-invariant operators in effective theories.

Contribution

It introduces a novel lattice approach to determine the collision kernel related to parton momentum broadening, extending previous theoretical proposals.

Findings

Numerical lattice results for the collision kernel.

Validation of the gauge-invariant operator approach.

Insights into the momentum broadening mechanism in quark-gluon plasma.

Abstract

The jet quenching parameter describes the momentum broadening of a high-energy parton moving through the quark-gluon plasma. Following an approach originally proposed by Caron-Huot, we discuss how one can extract information on the collision kernel associated with the parton momentum broadening, from the analysis of certain gauge-invariant operators in dimensionally reduced effective theories, and present numerical results from a lattice study.