Jet Quenching in Thin Quark-Gluon Plasmas I: Formalism

The modification and amplification of the gluon angular distribution produced along with hard jets in nuclear collisions is computed. We consider the limit of a thin quark-gluon plasma, where the number of rescatterings of the jet and gluons is small. The focus is on jet quenching associated with the formation of highly off-shell partons in hard scattering events involving nuclei. The interference between the initial hard radiation amplitude, the multiple induced Gunion-Bertsch radiation amplitudes, and gluon rescattering amplitudes leads to an angular distribution that differs considerably from both the standard DGLAP evolution and from the classical limit parton cascading. The cases of a single and double rescattering are considered in detail, and a systematic method to compute all matrix elements for the general case is developed. A simple power law scaling of the angular distribution with increasing number of rescatterings is found and used for estimates of the fractional energy loss as a function of the plasma thickness.Comment: 40 pages in Latex, 15 PS and EPS figure

Differences in high p_t meson production between CERN SPS and RHIC heavy ion collisions

In this talk we present a perturbative QCD improved parton model calculation for light meson production in high energy heavy ion collisions. In order to describe the experimental data properly, one needs to augment the standard pQCD model by the transverse momentum distribution of partons ("intrinsic k_T"). Proton-nucleus data indicate the presence of nuclear shadowing and multiscattering effects. Further corrections are needed in nucleus-nucleus collisions to explain the observed reduction of the cross section. We introduce the idea of proton dissociation and compare our calculations with the SPS and RHIC experimental data.Comment: Talk presented by G. Papp at Zakopane 2001 School, Zakopane, 2001 June; 10 pages with 3 EPS figure

Jet Quenching and Cronin Enhancement in A+A at s^1/2=20 vs 200 AGeV

The sensitivity of semi-hard (p_\perp < 10 GeV) hadron production to parton energy loss in high energy nuclear collisions is studied via the HIJING1.35 model. We test the model on recent WA98 data on 160 AGeV Pb+Pb -> pi^0 up to 4 GeV/c and while these data are reproduced, the results depends sensitively on the model of the Cronin effect. At (RHIC) collider energies (s^1/2 > 200 AGeV), on the other hand, semi-hard hadron production becomes insensitive to the above model and is thus expected to be a cleaner probe of jet quenching signature associated with non-Abelian radiative energy loss.Comment: 10 pages, Latex and 3 EPS figures are included, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Initial-State Bremsstrahlung versus Final-State Hydrodynamic Sources of Azimuthal Harmonics in p+A at RHIC and LHC

Recent pT<2~GeV azimuthal correlation data from the Beam Energy Scan (BES) and D+Au runs at RHIC/BNL and, especially, the surprising similarity of azimuthal $v_n\{2m\}(p_T)$ ``transeverse flow'' harmonics in $p+Pb$ and $Pb+Pb$ at LHC have challenged the uniqueness of local equilibrium ``perfect fluid'' interpretations of those data. We report results at QM14 on azimuthal harmonics associated with initial-state non-abelian ``wave interference'' effects predicted by perturbative QCD gluon bremsstrahlung and sourced by Color Scintillation Arrays (CSA) of color antennas. CSA are naturally identified with multiple projectile and target beam jets produced in inelastic p+A reactions. We find a remarkable similarity between azimuthal harmonics sourced by initial state CSA and those predicted with final state perfect fluid models of high energy p+A reactions. The question of which mechanism dominates in $p+A$ and $A+A$ remains open at this time.Comment: Contributed talk presented by M.G.at Quark Matter 2014, Darmstadt, D

Jet energy loss in heavy ion collisions from RHIC to LHC energies

The suppression of hadron production originated from the induced jet energy loss is one of the most accepted and well understood phenomena in heavy ion collisions, which indicates the formation of color deconfined matter consists of quarks, antiquarks and gluons. This phenomena has been seen at RHIC energies and now the first LHC results display a very similar effect. In fact, the suppression is so close to each other at 200 AGeV and 2.76 ATeV, that it is interesting to investigate if such a suppression pattern can exist at all. We use the Gyulassy-Levai-Vitev description of induced jet energy loss combined with different nuclear shadowing functions and describe the experimental data. We claim that a consistent picture can be obtained for the produced hot matter with a weak nuclear shadowing. The interplay between nuclear shadowing and jet energy loss playes a crucial role in the understanding of the experimental data.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of ICPAQGP'2010 Conference, Goa, Indi

Gluon Quasiparticles and the Polyakov Loop

A synthesis of Polyakov loop models of the deconfinement transition and quasiparticle models of gluon plasma thermodynamics leads to a class of models in which gluon quasiparticles move in a non-trivial Polyakov loop background. These models are successful candidates for explaining both critical behavior and the equation of state for the SU(3) gauge theory at temperatures above the deconfinement temperature T_c. Polyakov loops effects are most important at intermediate temperatures from T_c up to roughly 2.5 T_c, while quasiparticle mass effects provide the dominant correction to blackbody behavior at higher temperatures.Comment: 6 pages, 7 eps figures, revtex