Radiative energy loss of high energy quarks in finite-size nuclear matter and quark-gluon plasma

Abstract

The induced gluon radiation of a high energy quark in a finite-size QCD medium is studied. For a sufficiently energetic quark produced inside a medium we find the radiative energy loss $\Delta E_q\propto L^2$, where L is the distance passed by quark in the medium. It has a weak dependence on the initial quark energy $E_q$. The $L^2$ dependence turns to $L^1$ as the quark energy decreases. Numerical calculations are performed for a cold nuclear matter and a hot quark-gluon plasma. For a quark incident on a nucleus we predict $\Delta E_q\approx 0.1E_q(L/10fm{)}^{\beta }$, with $\beta$ close to unity.

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