Momentum broadening of a fast parton in a perturbative quark-gluon plasma

Journal Article · Tue Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.80.125020· OSTI ID:21316571

Majumder, Abhijit; Mueller, Berndt; Mrowczynski, Stanislaw ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 (United States)

The average transverse momentum transfer per unit path length to a fast parton scattering elastically in a perturbative quark-gluon plasma is related to the radiative energy loss of the parton. We first calculate the momentum transfer coefficient q-circumflex in terms of a classical Langevin problem and then define it quantum mechanically through a scattering matrix element. After treating the well-known case of a quark-gluon plasma in equilibrium, we consider an off-equilibrium unstable plasma. As a specific example, we treat the two-stream plasma with unstable modes of longitudinal chromoelectric field. In the presence of the instabilities, q-circumflex is shown to exponentially grow in time.

• OSTI ID: 21316571
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 80, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.80.125020; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELASTIC SCATTERING
ENERGY LOSSES
EQUILIBRIUM
INSTABILITY
MATRIX ELEMENTS
MOMENTUM TRANSFER
PERTURBATION THEORY
PLASMA
QUARK MATTER
SCATTERING
STREAMS
TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM