Radiative heavy quark energy loss in an expanding viscous QCD plasma

Abstract

We study viscous effects on heavy quark radiative energy loss in a dynamically screened medium with boost-invariant longitudinal expansion. We calculate, to first order in opacity, the energy loss by incorporating viscous corrections in the single-particle phase-space distribution function within relativistic dissipative hydrodynamics. We consider the Grad's 14-moment and the Chapman-Enskog-like methods for the nonequilibrium distribution functions. Our numerical results for the charm quark radiative energy loss show that, as compared to static fluid, an expanding ideal (nonviscous) fluid causes a much smaller energy loss. Viscosity in the evolution lead to somewhat enhanced energy loss which is insensitive to the underlying viscous hydrodynamic models used. Further inclusion of viscous correction induces larger energy loss, the magnitude and pattern of this enhancement crucially depend on the form of viscous corrections used.