English

Transport of hard probes through glasma

Nuclear Theory 2022-07-13 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We calculate the transverse momentum broadening q^\hat q and collisional energy loss dE/dxdE/dx of hard probes traversing an evolving glasma during the earliest phase of a relativistic heavy-ion collision. We use a Fokker-Planck equation and apply a proper time expansion to describe the temporal evolution of the glasma. The correlators of the chromodynamic fields that determine the Fokker-Planck collision terms, which in turn provide q^\hat q and dE/dxdE/dx, are computed to fifth order. Both transport coefficients are strongly dependent on time. The maximum values they acquire before the proper time expansion breaks down are large: q^\hat q is of the order of a few GeV2/fm{\rm GeV^2/fm} and dE/dx1 GeV/fmdE/dx \sim 1~{\rm GeV/fm}. Their precise values depend on the probe's velocity v{\bf v}, the saturation momentum QsQ_s, and an IR regulator mm that is related to the confinement scale. We study the dependence of our results on these quantities. Different regularization procedures are analysed and shown to produce similar results. We also discuss the validity of the proper time expansion and the compatibility of the approximations that are inherent in the derivation of the Fokker-Planck equation. We show that hard probes lose a comparable amount of energy when they propagate through the short-lived glasma phase, and the long-lasting hydrodynamic phase. The conclusion is that the glasma plays an important role in jet quenching.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2202.00357,
  title  = {Transport of hard probes through glasma},
  author = {Margaret E. Carrington and Alina Czajka and Stanislaw Mrowczynski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.00357},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

41 pages, 18 figures, a few comments added, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C