Dynamical Effects on Jet Energy Loss in a QCD Medium

Abstract

Computation of radiative energy loss in a finite size dynamically screened QCD medium is a key ingredient for obtaining reliable predictions for jet quenching in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. We develop a theory which allows calculating, to first order in the number of scattering centers, the energy loss of a heavy quark traveling through a finite size dynamical QCD medium. We show that the result for a dynamical medium is significantly larger compared to a medium consisting of randomly distributed static scattering centers. Therefore, a quantitative description of jet suppression at RHIC and LHC experiments must correctly account for the dynamics of the medium's constituents. Furthermore, qualitative predictions that come from this energy loss formalism are also presented.