Medium Induced Transverse Momentum Broadening in Hard Processes

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how medium effects induce transverse momentum broadening in hard scattering processes, proposing a factorization approach that separates vacuum radiation and medium contributions, applicable to various high-energy collision experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a factorization framework that separates vacuum and medium effects on transverse momentum broadening in hard processes, applicable to different collision scenarios.

Findings

Medium effects can be factorized into a medium-dependent distribution and a Sudakov factor.

The approach is generalizable to processes like dijet production.

The method can help measure medium-induced broadening in heavy ion collisions.

Abstract

Using deep inelastic scattering on a large nucleus as an example, we consider the transverse momentum broadening of partons in hard processes in the presence of medium. We find that one can factorize the vacuum radiation contribution and medium related $P_T$ broadening effects into the Sudakov factor and medium dependent distributions, respectively. Our derivations can be generalized to other hard processes, such as dijet productions, which can be used as a probe to measure the medium $P_T$ broadening effects in heavy ion collisions when Sudakov effects are not overwhelming.