Collisional jet quenching becomes probable

Abstract

It was argued recently that loop corrections to tree-level amplitudes are essential in the discussion of the collisional energy loss of energetic partons in the hot quark gluon plasma: Instead of $d{E}_{\mathrm{coll}}^B/dx\sim {\alpha }^2{T}^2\ln (ET/m_D^2)$, as first derived by Bjorken (assuming a constant $\alpha$), the mean energy loss actually behaves as $d{E}_{\mathrm{coll}}/dx\sim \alpha (m_D^2)T^2$. Here we calculate, within this resummation-improved framework, the probability distribution functions (`quenching weights') of the collisional energy loss. First results from a Monte Carlo implementation of this probabilistic collisional quenching shed new light on the interpretation of jet suppression in heavy ion collisions.

Comments: 5 figures