Interference Phenomena in Medium Induced Radiation

Abstract

We consider the interference pattern for the medium-induced gluon radiation produced by a color singlet quark-antiquark antenna embedded in a QCD medium with size $L$ and `jet quenching' parameter $\hat q$. Within the BDMPS-Z regime, we demonstrate that, for a dipole opening angle $\theta_{q\bar q} \gg\theta_c\equiv {2}/{\sqrt{\hat q L^3}}$, the interference between the medium--induced gluon emissions by the quark and the antiquark is suppressed with respect to the direct emissions. This is so since direct emissions are delocalized throughout the medium and thus yield contributions proportional to $L$ while interference occurs only between emissions at early times, when both sources remain coherent. Thus, for $\tqq \gg\theta_c$, the medium-induced radiation is the sum of the two spectra individually produced by the quark and the antiquark, without coherence effects like angular ordering. For $\tqq \ll\theta_c$, the medium--induced radiation vanishes.