arXiv subjects

Abhijit Majumder

Publications and source records attributed to Abhijit Majumder.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Multiple scattering of heavy-quarks in dense matter and the parametric prominence of drag

The case of heavy quark propagation in dense extended matter is studied in the multiple scattering formalism of the higher twist energy loss scheme. We consider the case of deep inelastic scattering off a large nucleus. The hard lepton scatters off a heavy quark fluctuation within one of the nucleons. This heavy quark then propagates through the dense medium, multiply scattering off the gluon field of the remaining nucleons in its path. We consider the fictitious process where a heavy quark propagates through the nucleus without radiation. Invoking Soft-Collinear Effective Theory power counting arguments, we consider the case of a "semi-hard" heavy-quark where the mass is of the order of the out-going momentum and larger than the transverse momentum imparted per unit length due to scattering. In this limit, it is found that longitudinal momentum exchanges (quantified by the transport coefficient $\hat{e}$) have a comparable effect on the off-shellness of the propagating quark, as the transverse momentum exchanges (quantified by $\hat{q}$) which constitute the leading cause of off-shellness for propagating light quarks or gluons. Consequences of this new hierarchy for the propagation of the heavy quark in dense matter are discussed.

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arXiv2014

Jet modification in the next decade: a pedestrian outlook

In this review, intended for non-specialists and beginners, we recount the current status of the theory of jet modification in dense matter. We commence with an outline of the "traditional" observables which may be calculated without recourse to event generators. These include single and double hadron suppression, nuclear modification factor versus reaction plane etc. All of these measurements are used to justify both the required underlying physical picture of jet modification as well as the final obtained values of jet transport coefficients. This is followed by a review of the more modern observables which have arisen with the ability to reconstruct full jets, and the challenges faced therein. This is followed by a preview of upcoming theoretical developments in the field and an outlook on how the interface between these developments, phenomenological improvements, and upcoming data will allow us to quantitatively determine properties of the medium which effect the modification of hard jets.

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arXiv2013

Extracting jet transport coefficient from jet quenching at RHIC and LHC

Within five different approaches to parton propagation and energy loss in dense matter, a phenomenological study of experimental data on suppression of large $p_T$ single inclusive hadrons in heavy-ion collisions at both RHIC and LHC was carried out. The evolution of bulk medium used in the study for parton propagation was given by 2+1D or 3+1D hydrodynamic models which are also constrained by experimental data on bulk hadron spectra. Values for the jet transport parameter $\hat q$ at the center of the most central heavy-ion collisions are extracted or calculated within each model, with parameters for the medium properties that are constrained by experimental data on the hadron suppression factor $R_{AA}$. For a quark with initial energy of 10 GeV we find that $\hat q\approx 1.2 \pm 0.3$ GeV$^2$/fm at an initial time $τ_0=0.6$ fm/$c$ in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV/n and $\hat q\approx 1.9 \pm 0.7 $ GeV$^2$/fm in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=2.76 $ TeV/n. Compared to earlier studies, these represent significant convergence on values of the extracted jet transport parameter, reflecting recent advances in theory and the availability of new experiment data from the LHC.

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arXiv2013

Estimating $\hat{q}$ in Quenched Lattice SU(2) Gauge Theory

The propagation of a virtual quark in a thermal medium is considered. The non-perturbative jet transport coefficient $\hat{q}$ is estimated in quark less SU(2) lattice gauge theory. The light like correlator which defines $\hat{q}$, defined in the regime where the jet has small virtuality compared to its energy, is analytically related to a series of local operators in the deep Euclidean region, where the jet's virtuality is of the same order as its energy. It is demonstrated that in this region, for temperatures in the range of T=400-600 MeV, and for jet energies above 20 GeV, the leading term in the series is dominant over the next-to-leading term and thus yields an estimate of the value of $\hat{q}$. In these proceedings we discuss the details of the numerical calculation.

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arXiv2013

Calculating the Jet Quenching Parameter $\hat{q}$ in Lattice Gauge Theory

We present a framework where first principles calculations of jet modification may be carried out in a non-perturbative thermal environment. As an example of this approach, we compute the leading order contribution to the transverse momentum broadening of a high energy (near on-shell) quark in a thermal medium. This involves a factorization of a non-perturbative operator product from the perturbative process of scattering of the quark. An operator product expansion of the non-perturbative operator product is carried out and related via dispersion relations to the expectation of local operators. These local operators are then evaluated in quenched SU(2) lattice gauge theory.

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arXiv2013

Parton Transport via Transverse and Longitudinal Scattering in Dense Media

The effect of multiple scatterings on the propagation of hard partonic jets in a dense nuclear medium is studied in the framework of deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) off a large nucleus. Power counting arguments based on the Glauber improved Soft-Collinear-Effective-Theory are used to identify the class of leading power corrections to the process of a single parton traversing the extended medium without emission. It turns out that the effect of longitudinal drag and diffusion (often referred to as straggling) is as important as transverse scattering, when relying solely on power counting arguments. With the inclusion of momentum exchanges in both transverse and longitudinal directions between the traversing hard parton and the constituents of the medium, we derive a differential equation for the time (or distance) evolution of the hard parton momentum distribution. Keeping up to the second order in a momentum gradient expansion, this equation describes in-medium evolution of hard jets which experience longitudinal drag and diffusion plus the transverse broadening caused by multiple scatterings from the medium.

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arXiv2013

Incorporating Space-Time Within Medium-Modified Jet Event Generators

We outline a novel approach to develop an in-medium shower Monte-Carlo event generator based on the higher-twist formalism of jet modification. By undoing one of the light-cone integrals which sets the corresponding light-cone momentum to be equal in the amplitude and the complex conjugate, we introduce an uncertainty in the smaller light-cone momentum component. This allows for the generalization of the standard analytic formalism to a Wigner transform like formalism, where the non-conjugate large light-cone momentum and position are retained for each parton. Jets are generated event-by-event by simulating this Wigner transform kernel. Simple results for longitudinal distributions of partons and hadrons from jets propagating through a hot brick of strongly interacting matter are presented. Values of the transport coefficient $\hat{q}$ are dialed to match phenomenologically relevant cases.

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arXiv2012

Comparison of Jet Quenching Formalisms for a Quark-Gluon Plasma "Brick"

We review the currently available formalisms for radiative energy loss of a high-momentum parton in a dense strongly interacting medium. The underlying theoretical framework of the four commonly used formalisms is discussed and the differences and commonalities between the formalisms are highlighted. A quantitative comparison of the single gluon emission spectra as well as the energy loss distributions is given for a model system consisting of a uniform medium with a fixed length of L=2 fm and L=5 fm (the `Brick'). Sizable quantitative differences are found. The largest differences can be attributed to specific approximations that are made in the calculation of the radiation spectrum.

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arXiv2012

Calculating the Jet Transport Coefficient $\hat{q}$ in Lattice Gauge Theory

The formalism of jet modification in the higher twist approach is modified to describe a hard parton propagating through a hot thermalized medium. The leading order contribution to the transverse momentum broadening of a high energy (near on-shell) quark in a thermal medium is calculated. This involves a factorization of the perturbative process of scattering of the quark from the non-perturbative transport coefficient. An operator product expansion of the non-perturbative operator product which represents $\hat{q}$ is carried out and related via dispersion relations to the expectation of local operators. These local operators are then evaluated in quenched SU(2) lattice gauge theory.

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arXiv2010

A pQCD-based description of heavy and light flavor jet quenching

We present a successful description of the medium modification of light and heavy flavor jets within a perturbative QCD (pQCD) based approach. Only the couplings involving hard partons are assumed to be weak. The effect of the medium on a hard parton, per unit time, is encoded in terms of three non-perturbative, related transport coefficients which describe the transverse momentum squared gained, the elastic energy loss and diffusion in elastic energy transfer. A fit of the centrality dependence of the suppression and the azimuthal anisotropy of leading hadrons tends to favor somewhat larger transport coefficients for heavy quarks. Imposing additional constraints based on leading order (LO) Hard Thermal Loop (HTL) effective theory, leads to a worsening of the fit.

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arXiv2010

Hadron Mass Spectrum from Lattice QCD

Finite temperature lattice simulations of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) are sensitive to the hadronic mass spectrum for temperatures below the "critical" temperature T_c ~ 160 MeV. We show that a recent precision determination of the QCD trace anomaly shows evidence for the existence of a large number of hadron states beyond those known from experiment. The lattice results are well represented by an exponentially growing hadron mass spectrum up to a temperature T = 155 MeV. Using simple parametrizations we show how one may estimate the total spectral weight in these yet undermined states.

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arXiv2010

Electric Charge Separation in Strong Transient Magnetic Fields

We discuss various mechanisms for the creation of an asymmetric charge fluctuation with respect to the reaction plane among hadrons emitted in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We show that such mechanisms exist in both, the hadronic gas and the partonic phases of QCD. The mechanisms considered here all require the presence of a strong magnetic field (the ``chiral magnetic effect''), but they do not involve parity or charge-parity violations. We analyze how a transient local electric current fluctuation generated by the chiral magnetic effect can dynamically evolve into an asymmetric charge distribution among the final-state hadrons in momentum space. We estimate the magnitude of the event-by-event fluctuations of the final-state charge asymmetry due to the partonic and hadronic mechanisms.

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arXiv2010

Hard collinear gluon radiation and multiple scattering in a medium

The energy loss of hard jets produced in the Deep-Inelastic scattering (DIS) off a large nucleus is considered in the collinear limit. In particular, the single gluon emission cross section due to multiple scattering in the medium is calculated. Calculations are carried out in the higher-twist scheme, which is extended to include contributions from multiple transverse scatterings on both the produced quark and the radiated gluon. The leading length enhanced parts of these power suppressed contributions are resummed. Various interferences between such diagrams lead to the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect. We resum the corrections from an arbitrary number of scatterings and isolate the leading contributions which are suppressed by one extra power of the hard scale $Q^{2}$. All powers of the emitted gluon forward momentum fraction $y$ are retained. We compare our results with the previous calculation of single scattering per emission in the higher-twist scheme as well as with multiple scattering resummations in other schemes. It is found that the leading ($1/Q^2$) contribution to the double differential gluon production cross section, in this approach, is equivalent to that obtained from the single scattering calculation once the transverse momentum of the final quark is integrated out. We comment on the generalization of this formalism to Monte-Carlo routines.

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arXiv2009

Jet Medium interactions at Quark Matter 09

The suppression of the yield of high transverse momentum $p_{T}$ hadrons in heavy-ion collisions, referred to as "jet-quenching", has now developed into a comprehensive science. Jets are now used as probes of a variety of properties of the dense medium through which they propagate. Major theoretical improvements include jet modification in a 3-D fluid dynamical medium, the first set of in-medium Monte-Carlo implementations, an understanding of multi-hadron observables and energy flow within perturbative QCD, along with improvements in the AdS/CFT description of energy loss. On the experimental side, high statistics data are allowing for the first discriminatory test of various theoretical models and approximations while the new measurements of full jet reconstruction pose a challenge to theory.

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arXiv2009

Extending Soft-Collinear-Effective-Theory to describe hard jets in dense QCD media

An extension to the Soft-Collinear-Effective Theory (SCET) description of hard jets is motivated to include the leading contributions between the propagating partons within the jet with partons radiated from a dense extended medium. The resulting effective Lagrangian, containing both a leading and a power suppressed (in the hard scale $Q^2$) contribution, arises primarily from interactions between the hard collinear modes in the jet with Glauber modes from the medium. In this first attempt, the interactions between the hard jet and soft and collinear partonic modes have been ignored, in an effort to focus solely on the interactions with the Glauber modes. While the effect of such modes on vacuum cross sections are suppressed by powers of the hard scale compared to the terms from the SCET Lagrangian, such sub-leading contributions are enhanced by the extent of the medium and result in measurable corrections. The veracity of the derived Lagrangian is checked by direct comparison with known results from full QCD calculations of two physical observables: the transverse momentum broadening of hard jets in dense media and a reanalysis of the transverse momentum dependent parton distribution function (TMDPDF).

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arXiv2009

Systematic Comparison of Jet Energy-Loss Schemes in a realistic hydrodynamic medium

We perform a systematic comparison of three different jet energy-loss approaches. These include the Armesto-Salgado-Wiedemann scheme based on the approach of Baier-Dokshitzer-Mueller-Peigne-Schiff and Zakharov (BDMPS-Z/ASW), the Higher Twist approach (HT) and a scheme based on the approach of Arnold-Moore-Yaffe (AMY). In this comparison, an identical medium evolution will be utilized for all three approaches: not only does this entail the use of the same realistic three-dimensional relativistic fluid dynamics (RFD) simulation, but also includes the use of identical initial parton-distribution functions and final fragmentation functions. We are, thus, in a unique position, not only to isolate fundamental differences between the various approaches, but also to make rigorous calculations for different experimental measurements using "state of the art" components. All three approaches are reduced to a version which contains only one free tunable parameter, this is then related to the well known transport parameter $\hat{q}$. We find that the parameters of all three calculations can be adjusted to provide a good description of inclusive data on $R_{AA}$ versus transverse momentum. However, we do observe slight differences in their predictions for the centrality and azimuthal angular dependence of $R_{AA}$ vs. $p_T$. We also note that the value of the transport coefficient $\hat{q}$ in the three approaches to describe the data differs significantly.

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arXiv2007

Photon Production from Charge-Asymmetric Hot and Dense Matter

A new channel of direct photon production from a quark gluon plasma (QGP) is explored. This process appears at Next-to-Leading-Order in the presence of a charge asymmetry in the heated matter and may be effectively described as the bremsstrahlung of a real photon from a thermal gluon. The photon production from this new mechanism is calculated in the effective theory of QCD at high temperature. The results show that the photon production rate may not as big as the annihilation and Compton scattering at low baryon density, but could become important in baryon-rich matter.

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arXiv2007

Electromagnetic Radiation from Broken Symmetries in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions

A new channel of direct photon production from a quark gluon plasma (QGP) is explored in the framework of high-temperature QCD. This process appears at next-to-leading order, in the presence of a charge asymmetry in the excited matter. The photon production rate from this new mechanism is suppressed compared to the QCD annihilation and Compton scattering at low baryon density but assumes importance in baryon-rich matter.

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