Jet quenching in the hadron gas: An exploratory study

TL;DR

This study explores the impact of the hadronic stage on jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions using the SMASH transport model, revealing species-dependent energy loss effects that influence high-momentum particle observables.

Contribution

It provides the first assessment of rescattering effects on hard particles during the hadronic phase with a parametrization of energy loss based on temperature and particle energy.

Findings

Hadronic energy loss varies with particle species and energy.

Major effects are expected in the 2-10 GeV transverse momentum range.

Jet sub-structure and correlation observables may be affected.

Abstract

In most calculations of hard particle suppression in heavy-ion reactions the hadronic stage has been neglected due to formation time arguments. Most of the hard particle shower exits the hot and dense medium before the system enters the hadronic evolution. In this contribution, a first assessment within the hadronic transport approach SMASH (Simulating Many Accelerated Strongly-interacting Hadrons) of rescattering effects on hard particles is presented. In particular, it is shown that the hadronic energy loss depends on the particle species as well as the energy of the probe. A parametrization for the $\langle \tilde{q} \rangle$ parameter as a function of temperature and particle energy is given for pions. Overall, major effects of the hadronic stage are expected in the transverse momentum range from 2-10 GeV and therefore jet sub-structure analysis and (hard-soft) correlation observables might be affected.