Jet quenching in anisotropic flowing matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how flow and hydrodynamic gradients in anisotropic media affect jet quenching, revealing that mixed flow-gradient effects significantly influence jet energy loss and broadening, with implications for heavy-ion collision analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a first-order opacity framework incorporating flow-gradient effects on jet quenching, extending jet tomography methods in inhomogeneous media.

Findings

Flow-gradient contributions are enhanced by medium length.

Mixed effects dominate over other medium evolution effects.

Results can be integrated with matter simulations for improved jet tomography.

Abstract

We study the interplay between the flow and hydrodynamic gradients in jet quenching at first order in opacity. We find that the mixed flow-gradient contributions in jet quenching are enhanced by the medium length, and survive in the eikonal limit, dominating over other medium evolution effects. The resulting modification to the jet quenching parameter and energy loss rate can be substantial, leading to ample phenomenological implications. We also compute the leading corrections to the jet broadening due to the flow velocity gradients, and consider the leading gradient effects in the medium-induced branching for general kinematics, extending the recent considerations of jets in inhomogeneous media. These results can be straightforwardly coupled to matter simulations, providing new opportunities for jet tomography in heavy-ion collisions.