Exciting gauge unstable modes of the quark-gluon plasma by relativistic jets

Abstract

We present a study of the properties of the collective modes of a system composed by a thermalized quark-gluon plasma traversed by a relativistic jet of partons. We find that when the jet traverses the system unstable gauge field modes are excited and grow on very short time scales. The aim is to provide a novel mechanism for the description of the jet quenching phenomenon, where the jet crossing the plasma loses energy exciting colored unstable modes. In order to simplify the analysis we employ a linear response approximation, valid for short time scales. We assume that the partons in the jet can be described with a tsunami-like distribution function, whereas we treat the quark-gluon plasma employing two different approaches. In the first approach we adopt a Vlasov approximation for the kinetic equations, in the second approach we solve a set of fluid equations. In both cases we derive the expressions of the dispersion law of the collective unstable modes and compare the results obtained.