Conical Flow induced by Quenched QCD Jets

Abstract

Quenching is a recently discovered phenomenon in which QCD jets created in heavy ion collisions deposit a large fraction or even all their energy and momentum into the produced matter. At RHIC and higher energies, where that matter is a strongly coupled Quark-Gluon Plasma (sQGP) with very small viscosity, we suggest that this energy/momentum propagate as a collective excitation or ``conical flow''. Similar hydrodynamical phenomena are well known, e.g. the so called sonic booms from supersonic planes. We solve the linearized relativistic hydrodynamic equations to detail the flow picture. We argue that for RHIC collisions the direction of this flow should make a cone at a specific large angle with the jet, of about $70^o$, and thus lead to peaks in particle correlations at the angle $\Delta\phi=\pi\pm 1.2$ rad relative to the large-$p_t$ trigger. This angle happens to matchperfectly the position of the maximum in the angular distribution of secondaries associated with the trigger recently seen by the STAR and PHENIX collaborations. We also discuss briefly possible alternative explanations and suggest some further tests to clarify the mechanism.