Non-Abelian Energy Loss at Finite Opacity

Abstract

A systematic expansion in opacity, L/lambda, is used to clarify the nonlinear behavior of induced gluon radiation in quark-gluon plasmas. The inclusive differential gluon distribution is calculated up to second order in opacity and compared to the zeroth order (factorization) limit. The opacity expansion makes it possible to take finite kinematic constraints into account that suppress jet quenching in nuclear collisions below RHIC (square root of s = 200 AGeV) energies.