Color Coherence and the Soft Structure of QCD Jets in Vacuum and the QGP

Abstract

We formulate a theoretical framework for the evolution of QCD jets in vacuum and in the quark--gluon plasma through the resummation of large energy logarithms. Exploiting the strong hierarchy between the hard scale of the jet and the energy scale associated with jet energy loss, we show that jet observables near threshold can be formulated in terms of Wilson-line correlators obeying Banfi-Marchesini-Smye (BMS) evolution. In this description, soft radiation resolves the internal color structure of the jet, leading to a hierarchy of non-linear evolution equations that govern the evolution of color coherence and the emergence of decoherent energy loss. For jets propagating through a QCD medium, we demonstrate that medium-induced interactions modify the boundary conditions of the evolution while leaving its ultraviolet structure unchanged. This separation of scales provides a unified description of vacuum-like radiation, medium-induced energy loss, and color coherence. In the large-$N_c$ limit, the resulting evolution is closely related to the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation of high-energy QCD, allowing concepts from saturation physics to be applied to jet quenching. In particular, the medium coherence angle plays a role analogous to the saturation scale and acquires the same asymptotic scaling behavior under evolution. Our framework establishes a perturbative foundation for the study of color coherence effects in jet quenching and provides a unified picture of soft jet evolution in vacuum and in dense QCD matter.