Energy Loss of a Heavy Quark Produced in a Finite Size Medium

P. -B. Gossiaux; S. Peigne; C. Brandt; J. Aichelin

doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2007/04/012

paper

Energy Loss of a Heavy Quark Produced in a Finite Size Medium

arXiv:hep-ph/0608061 · doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2007/04/012

Abstract

We study the medium-induced energy loss $- Δ E_{0} (L_{p})$ suffered by a heavy quark produced at initial time in a quark-gluon plasma, and escaping the plasma after travelling the distance $L_{p}$ . The heavy quark is treated classically, and within the same framework $- Δ E_{0} (L_{p})$ consistently includes: the loss from standard collisional processes, initial bremsstrahlung due to the sudden acceleration of the quark, and transition radiation. The radiative loss {\it induced by rescatterings} $- Δ E_{r a d} (L_{p})$ is not included in our study. For a ultrarelativistic heavy quark with momentum $p \gsim 10 {\rm GeV}$, and for a finite plasma with $L_p \lsim 5 {\rm fm}$, the loss $- Δ E_{0} (L_{p})$ is strongly suppressed compared to the stationary collisional contribution $- Δ E_{co l l} (L_{p}) \propto L_{p}$ . Our results support that $- Δ E_{r a d}$ is the dominant contribution to the heavy quark energy loss (at least for $L_p \lsim 5 {\rm fm}$), as indeed assumed in most of jet-quenching analyses. However they might raise some question concerning the RHIC data on large $p_{⊥}$ electron spectra.

18 pages, 3 figures. New version clarified and simplified. A critical discussion added in section 2, and previous sections 3 and 4 have been merged together. Main results are unchanged

Energy Loss of a Heavy Quark Produced in a Finite Size Medium

Abstract

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