Energy loss of a heavy quark in the quark-gluon plasma

Journal Article · Fri Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.44.R2625· OSTI ID:6387646

Braaten, E ^[1]; Thoma, M H ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (USA)
2. Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California (USA)

The energy loss {ital dE}/{ital dx} for a heavy quark propagating through a quark-gluon plasma is calculated to leading order in the QCD coupling constant. Simple formulas for {ital dE}/{ital dx} are obtained in the regions {ital E}{much lt}{ital M}{sub {ital Q}}{sup 2}/{ital T} and {ital E}{much gt}{ital M}{sub {ital Q}}{sup 2}/{ital T}, where {ital M}{sub {ital Q}} is the mass of the heavy quark and {ital T} is the temperature. The crossover energy between the two regions is determined to be approximately 1.8{ital M}{sub {ital Q}}{sup 2}/{ital T}. Under conditions relevant to ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, charm quarks and bottom quarks lie on opposite sides of the crossover energy and therefore experience significantly different energy losses.

• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098; AC02-76ER02289
• OSTI ID: 6387646
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Vol. 44:9; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
COUPLING CONSTANTS
QUARKS
ENERGY LOSSES
CHARM PARTICLES
ELASTIC SCATTERING
FEYNMAN DIAGRAM
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
MASS
MOMENTUM TRANSFER
QUARK MATTER
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
CHARGED-PARTICLE REACTIONS
DIAGRAMS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
LOSSES
MATTER
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
POSTULATED PARTICLES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
SCATTERING
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