Energy loss in unstable QGP - problem of the upper cut-off

Abstract

The energy loss of a highly energetic parton in a weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma is studied as an initial value problem. An extremely prolate plasma, where the momentum distribution is infinitely elongated along one direction, is considered. The energy loss is strongly time and direction dependent and its magnitude can much exceed the equilibrium value. It is logarithmically ultraviolet divergent. We argue that a good approximation to the energy loss can be obtained if this divergence is cut off with the parton energy.