Energy Loss of Leading Partons in a Thermal QCD Medium

Abstract

We consider bremsstrahlung energy loss for hard partons traversing a quark-gluon plasma. Accounting correctly for the probabilistic nature of the energy loss, and making a leading-order accurate treatment of bremsstrahlung, we find that the suppression of the spectrum is nearly flat, with the most suppression at energies $E\sim 30T$ ($T$ the QGP temperature), in contrast to previous literature but in agreement with experimental data. This flat pattern should also be observed at the LHC.

4 pages using revtex4. Includes 3 eps figures