skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Multiple parton scattering in nuclei: Heavy quark energy loss andmodified fragmentation functions

Journal Article · · Nuclear Physics A
OSTI ID:878317

Multiple scattering, induced radiative energy loss and modified fragmentation functions of a heavy quark in nuclear matter are studied within the framework of generalized factorization in perturbative QCD. Modified heavy quark fragmentation functions and energy loss are derived in detail with illustration of the mass dependencies of the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal interference effects and heavy quark energy loss. Due to the quark mass dependence of the gluon formation time, the nuclear size dependencies of nuclear modification of the heavy quark fragmentation function and heavy quark energy loss are found to change from a linear to a quadratic form when the initial energy and momentum scale are increased relative to the quark mass. The radiative energy loss of the heavy quark is also significantly suppressed due to limited cone of gluon radiation imposed by the mass. Medium modification of the heavy quark fragmentation functions is found to be limited to the large z region due to the form of heavy quark fragmentation functions in vacuum.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Director. Office of Science. Office of High Energy andNuclear Physics. Division of Nuclear Physics; NSFC Projects 10347130 and10405011 and 10440420018
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
878317
Report Number(s):
LBNL-56660; R&D Project: NTCOST; BnR: KB0301020; TRN: US0602317
Journal Information:
Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 757, Issue 3-4; Related Information: Journal Publication Date: 08/22/2005
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English