Nuclear $p_\perp$-broadening of an energetic parton pair

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how a fast parton pair's transverse momentum broadening in a nuclear medium depends on its overall color state, using theoretical models applicable to any number of colors.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive framework for understanding nuclear broadening of parton pairs with arbitrary color states and generalizes previous models to any number of colors.

Findings

Provides tools for phenomenological studies of n-parton systems

Highlights the role of color structure in transverse momentum broadening

Generalizes to any number of colors N

Abstract

We revisit the transverse momentum broadening of a fast parton pair crossing a nuclear medium, putting emphasis on the pair global color state, for any number of colors $N$ and within the eikonal limit for parton propagation and the Gaussian approximation for the gluon field of the target. This study should provide the necessary tools to address nuclear broadening of $n$-parton systems in phenomenology while highlighting the color structure of the process.