Transverse momentum diffusion and broadening of the back-to-back di-hadron correlation function

Abstract

We extend the Gyulassy-Levai-Vitev reaction operator approach to multiple elastic scattering of fast partons traversing dense nuclear matter to take into account the leading power corrections due to the medium recoil and to derive the change in the partons' longitudinal momentum.We employ a boost-invariant formalism to generalize previous treatments of the problem, which were specific to the target rest frame. We apply the transverse momentum diffusion results in a simple analytic model to evaluate the broadening of the back-to-back di-hadron correlation function in $d+Au$ reactions.