Collisional jet quenching becomes probable

Abstract

It was argued recently that loop corrections to tree-level amplitudes are essential in the discussion of the collisional energy loss of energetic partons in the hot quark gluon plasma: Instead of $dE_{\rm coll}^B/dx \sim \alpha^2 T^2 \ln(ET/m_D^2)$, as first derived by Bjorken (assuming a constant $\alpha$), the mean energy loss actually behaves as $dE_{\rm coll}/dx \sim \alpha(m_D^2)T^2$. Here we calculate, within this resummation-improved framework, the probability distribution functions (`quenching weights') of the collisional energy loss. First results from a Monte Carlo implementation of this probabilistic collisional quenching shed new light on the interpretation of jet suppression in heavy ion collisions.