Radiative energy loss in a finite dynamical QCD medium

Understand

The radiative energy loss of a quark jet traversing a finite size QCD medium with dynamical constituents is calculated to first order in opacity.

• Although finite size corrections reduce the energy loss relative to an infinite dynamical QCD medium, under realistic conditions it remains significantly larger than in a static medium.
• Quantitative predictions of jet suppression in relativistic heavy ion collisions must therefore account for the dynamics of the medium's constituents.
• Finite size effects are shown to induce a non-linear path length dependence of the energy loss.