We present a conceptually new framework for describing jet evolution in the dense medium produced in ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions using perturbative QCD and its implementation into the Monte Carlo event generator JEWEL. The rescatter
ing of hard partons in the medium is modelled by infrared continued pQCD matrix elements supplemented with parton showers. The latter approximate higher order real-emission matrix elements and thus generate medium-induced gluon emissions. The interplay between different emissions is governed by their formation times. The destructive interference between subsequent scattering processes, the non-Abelian version of the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect, is also taken into account. In this way the complete radiation pattern is consistently treated in a uniform way. Results obtained within this minimal and theoretically well constrained framework are compared with a variety of experimental data susceptible to jet-quenching effects at both RHIC and the LHC. Overall, a good agreement between data and simulation is found. This new framework also allows to identify and quantify the dominant uncertainties in the simulation, and we show some relevant examples for this.
It is widely accepted that a phenomenologically viable theory of jet quenching for heavy ion collisions requires the understanding of medium-induced parton energy loss beyond the limit of eikonal kinematics formulated by Baier-Dokshitzer-Mueller-Peig
ne-Schiff and Zakharov (BDMPS-Z). Here, we supplement a recently developed exact Monte Carlo implementation of the BDMPS-Z formalism with elementary physical requirements including exact energy-momentum conservation, a refined formulation of jet-medium interactions and a treatment of all parton branchings on the same footing. We document the changes induced by these physical requirements and we describe their kinematic origin.
We present a new formulation of jet quenching in perturbative QCD beyond the eikonal approximation. Multiple scattering in the medium is modelled through infra-red-continued (2 -> 2) scattering matrix elements in QCD and the parton shower describing
further emissions. The interplay between these processes is arranged in terms of a formation time constraint such that coherent emissions can be treated consistently. Emerging partons are hadronised by the Lund string model, tuned to describe LEP data in conjunction with the parton shower. Based on this picture we obtain a good description of the nuclear modification factor R_AA at RHIC and LHC.
