Jet Broadening in the Opacity and Twist Expansions

Abstract

We compute the in-medium jet broadening $\langle p_\perp^2\rangle$ to leading order in energy in the opacity expansion. At leading order in $\alpha_s$ the elastic energy loss gives a jet broadening that grows with $\ln E$. The next-to-leading order in $\alpha_s$ result is a jet narrowing, due to destructive LPM interference effects, that grows with $\ln^2 E$. We find that in the opacity expansion the jet broadening asymptotics are -- unlike for the mean energy loss -- extremely sensitive to the correct treatment of the finite kinematics of the problem; integrating over all emitted gluon transverse momenta leads to a prediction of jet broadening rather than narrowing. We compare the asymptotics from the opacity expansion to a recent twist-4 derivation of $\langle p_\perp^2\rangle$ and find a qualitative disagreement: the twist-4 derivation predicts a jet broadening rather than a narrowing. Comparison with current jet measurements cannot distinguish between the broadening or narrowing predictions. We comment on the origin of the difference between the opacity expansion and twist-4 results.