Jet energy loss and fragmentation in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

Recent LHC results indicate a suppression of jet fragmentation functions in Pb-Pb collisions at intermediate values of $\xi=\ln(1/z)$. This seems to contradict the picture of energy loss based on the induced QCD radiation that is expected to lead to the enhancement of in-medium fragmentation functions. We use an effective 1+1 dimensional quasi-Abelian model to describe the dynamical modification of jet fragmentation in the medium. We find that this approach describes the data, and argue that there is no contradiction between the LHC results and the picture of QCD radiation induced by the in-medium scattering of the jet. The physics that underlies the suppression of the in-medium fragmentation function at intermediate values of $\xi=\ln(1/z)$ is the partial screening of the color charge of the jet by the comoving medium-induced gluon.