Jet quenching beyond the energy loss approach

TL;DR

This paper develops a novel approach to jet quenching in heavy ion collisions using medium-induced splitting functions derived from Soft Collinear Effective Theory, providing analytical solutions and comparisons to experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a DGLAP evolution framework with medium-induced splitting functions and analytically solves the equations in the small-$x$ limit, extending beyond traditional energy loss models.

Findings

Finite-$x$ corrections significantly affect the nuclear modification factor.

Analytical solutions connect jet quenching to DGLAP evolution.

Model shows good agreement with LHC Pb+Pb collision data.

Abstract

We study the jet quenching effect in heavy ion collisions, based on medium-induced splitting functions calculated from Soft Collinear Effective Theory with Glauber Gluons. Our method is formulated in the language of DGLAP evolution equations with medium-induced splitting functions. In the small-$x$ soft gluon approximation we analytically solve the evolution equations and find an intuitive connection to the energy loss approach. For central Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC we quantify the effect of finite-$x$ corrections for the nuclear modification factor and compare to data.