Medium Induced Transverse Momentum Broadening in Hard Processes

Abstract

Using deep inelastic scattering on a large nucleus as an example, we consider the transverse momentum broadening of partons in hard processes in the presence of medium. We find that one can factorize the vacuum radiation contribution and medium related $P_T$ broadening effects into the Sudakov factor and medium dependent distributions, respectively. Our derivations can be generalized to other hard processes, such as dijet productions, which can be used as a probe to measure the medium $P_T$ broadening effects in heavy ion collisions when Sudakov effects are not overwhelming.