# 1 .The diagram representation of the inclusive spectrum (5) (a), and (6) (b).

Talk given at 34th Rencontres de Moriond

”QCD and High Energy Hadronic Interactions”,

Les Arcs, France, March 20–27, 1999

TRANSVERSE SPECTRA OF INDUCED RADIATION   
B.G. Zakharov   
Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, GSP-1, 117940,   
Kosygina Str. 2, 117334 Moscow, Russia   

Abstract

Transverse spectra of induced radiation are discussed within the light-cone path integral approach to the LPM effect. The results are applicable in both QED and QCD.

Recently the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect  in induced radiation in QED and QCD has attracted much attention (see review by Klein  and references therein). Understanding the LPM effect in QCD is of great importance for evaluation of parton energy loss in nuclei and a hot QCD medium . The case of hot QCD medium is especially interesting in view of the experiments on $`AA`$-collisions at RHIC and LHC.

In Ref.  I have developed a new rigorous light-cone path integral approach to the LPM effect. There I have discussed the $`p_{}`$-integrated spectra. In this talk I discuss the transverse spectra of induced radiation. Similarly to Ref.  the results are applicable in both QED and QCD. For simplicity I describe the formalism for an induced $`abc`$ transition in QED for scalar particles with an interaction Lagrangian $`L_{int}=\lambda [\widehat{\psi }_b^+\widehat{\psi }_c^+\widehat{\psi }_a+\widehat{\psi }_b\widehat{\psi }_c\widehat{\psi }_a^+]`$. The corresponding $`S`$-matrix element reads

$$bc|\widehat{S}|a=i𝑑t𝑑\text{r}\lambda \psi _b^{}(t,\text{r})\psi _c^{}(t,\text{r})\psi _a(t,\text{r}),$$
(1)   
where $`\psi _i`$ are the wavefunctions (ingoing for $`i=a`$ and outgoing for $`i=b,c`$). I normalize the flux to unity at $`z=\mathrm{}`$ for $`i=a`$ and at $`z=\mathrm{}`$ for $`i=b,c`$, and write $`\psi _i`$ as

$$\psi _i(t,\text{r})=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2E_i}}\mathrm{exp}[i(tz)p_{i,z}]\varphi _i(t,\text{r}).$$
(2)   
In the high energy limit, $`E_im_i`$, the dependence of $`\varphi _i`$ on the variable $`\tau =(t+z)/2`$ at $`tz=`$const is governed by the two-dimensional Schrödinger equation

$$i\frac{\varphi _i}{\tau }=H_i\varphi _i,$$
(3)   
$$H_i=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{}}{2\mu _i}+e_iA^0+\frac{m_i^2}{2\mu _i},$$
(4)   
where $`\mu _i=p_{i,z}`$, $`e_i`$ is the electric charge, $`A^0`$ is the potential of the target.

After some algebra from (1), (2) one can obtain in the high energy limit the following expression for the inclusive probability of induced radiation

$$\frac{d^5P}{dxd\text{q}_bd\text{q}_c}=\frac{2}{(2\pi )^4}\text{Re}\underset{z_1<z_2}{}𝑑𝝆_1𝑑𝝆_2𝑑z_1𝑑z_2gF(z_1,𝝆_1)F^{}(z_2,𝝆_2),$$
(5)   
where $`\text{q}_{b,c}`$ are the transverse momenta, $`𝝆`$ is transverse coordinate, $`x=p_{b,z}/p_{a,z}`$ (note that for the particle $`c`$ $`p_{c,z}=(1x)p_{a,z}`$), $`g=\lambda ^2/[16\pi x(1x)E_a^2]`$, $`\mathrm{}`$ means averaging over the states of the target, $`F(z,𝝆)=\varphi _b^{}(t,\text{r})\varphi _c^{}(t,\text{r})\varphi _a(t,\text{r})|_{t=z}`$. Since the wavefunctions enter (5) only at $`t=z`$, $`\varphi _i`$ can be regarded as functions of $`z`$, and $`𝝆`$. In the Schrödinger equation (3) $`z`$ will play the role of time. I represent $`z`$-dependence of $`\varphi _i`$ in terms of the Green’s function, $`K_i`$, of the Hamiltonian (4). Then, in the diagram language (5) is described by the graph of Fig. 1a. I depict $`K_i`$ ($`K_i^{}`$) by $``$ ($``$). The dotted line shows the transverse density matrices at large longitudinal distances in front of ($`z=z_i`$) and behind ($`z=z_f`$) the target.<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1Strictly speaking, in (1), (5) the adiabatically vanishing at $`|z||z_{i,f}|`$ coupling should be used. For simplicity I do not indicate the coordinate dependence of the coupling. If the particle $`a`$ is produced in a hard reaction, and does not propagate from infinity, then $`z_i`$ equals the coordinate of the production point.

Below I will consider the radiation rate integrated over $`\text{q}_c`$. In this case the graph of Fig. 1a is transformed into the one of Fig. 1b. The corresponding analytical expression reads

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d^3P}{dxd\text{q}_b}}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{(2\pi )^2}}\text{Re}{\displaystyle \underset{z_i}{\overset{z_f}{}}}𝑑z_1{\displaystyle \underset{z_1}{\overset{z_f}{}}}𝑑z_2{\displaystyle 𝑑𝝆_{b,f}𝑑𝝆_{b,f}^{^{}}𝑑𝝆_b𝑑𝝆_b^{^{}}𝑑𝝆_a𝑑𝝆_a^{^{}}𝑑𝝆_{a,i}𝑑𝝆_{a,i}^{^{}}g\mathrm{exp}[i\text{q}_b(𝝆_{b,f}𝝆_{b,f}^{^{}})]}`$   
$`\times S_b(𝝆_{b,f},𝝆_{b,f}^{^{}},z_f|𝝆_b,𝝆_b^{^{}},z_2)M(𝝆_b,𝝆_b^{^{}},z_2|𝝆_a,𝝆_a^{^{}},z_1)S_a(𝝆_a,𝝆_a^{^{}},z_2|𝝆_{a,i},𝝆_{a,i}^{^{}},z_i),`$ (6)   
$$S_i(𝝆_2,𝝆_2^{^{}},z_2|𝝆_1,𝝆_1^{^{}},z_1)=K_i(𝝆_2,z_2|𝝆_1,z_1)K_i^{}(𝝆_2^{^{}},z_2|𝝆_1^{^{}},z_1),$$
(7)   
$$M(𝝆_2,𝝆_2^{^{}},z_2|𝝆_1,𝝆_1^{^{}},z_1)=K_b(𝝆_2,z_2|𝝆_1,z_1)K_c(𝝆_2^{^{}},z_2|𝝆_1,z_1)K_a^{}(𝝆_2^{^{}},z_2|𝝆_1^{^{}},z_1).$$
(8)   
Using the path integral representation for the Green’s functions one can evaluate analytically the initial- and final-state interaction factors $`S_{a,b}`$ . The factor $`M`$ (8) differs from that of Ref.  by the replacement of $`𝝆_2^{^{}}`$ by $`𝝆_2`$ in the Green’s function $`K_c`$. Similar to that of Ref.  it can be expressed through the Green’s function $`K_{bc}`$ describing the relative motion of the particles $`b`$ and $`c`$ in a fictitious $`\overline{a}bc`$ system. After analytical integration over the center-of-mass transverse coordinates the radiation rate takes the form

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d^3P}{dxd\text{q}_b}}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{(2\pi )^2}}\text{Re}{\displaystyle \underset{z_i}{\overset{z_f}{}}}𝑑z_1{\displaystyle \underset{z_1}{\overset{z_f}{}}}𝑑z_2{\displaystyle 𝑑𝝉_bg\mathrm{exp}(i\text{q}_b𝝉_b)}`$   
$`\times \mathrm{\Phi }_b(𝝉_b,z_2)\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{i(z_1z_2)}{L_f}}\right]K_{bc}(𝝉_b,z_2|0,z_1)\mathrm{\Phi }_a(𝝉_a,z_1),`$ (9)   
where

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_a(𝝉_a,z_1)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\sigma _{a\overline{a}}(𝝉_a)}{2}\underset{z_i}{\overset{z_1}{}}𝑑zn(z)\right],\mathrm{\Phi }_b(𝝉_b,z_2)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\sigma _{b\overline{b}}(𝝉_b)}{2}\underset{z_2}{\overset{z_f}{}}𝑑zn(z)\right]$$
(10)   
are the eikonal initial- and final-state absorption factors,<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2 I emphasize, that appearance of the eikonal absorption factors in (9) is a nontrivial consequence of the specific form of evolution operators $`S_{a,b}`$ , and is not connected with applicability of the eikonal approximation. $`𝝉_a=x𝝉_b`$, $`L_f=2E_ax(1x)/[m_b^2(1x)+m_c^2xm_a^2x(1x)]`$. The Hamiltonian for the Green’s function $`K_{bc}`$ reads

$$H_{bc}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{}}{2\mu _{bc}}\frac{in(z)\sigma _{\overline{a}bc}(𝝉_{bc},𝝉_{ab})}{2},$$
(11)   
where $`\mu _{bc}=E_ax(1x)`$, $`𝝉_{ab}=[𝝉_a+𝝉_{bc}(1x)]`$. In (10), (11) $`n(z)`$ is the number density of the target, $`\sigma _{a\overline{a}}`$ and $`\sigma _{b\overline{b}}`$ are the dipole cross sections of interaction with the medium constituent of $`a\overline{a}`$ and $`b\overline{b}`$ pairs, and $`\sigma _{\overline{a}bc}`$ is the three-body cross section for $`\overline{a}bc`$-system.

The integration over $`\text{q}_b`$ in (9) gives the $`x`$-spectrum

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dP}{dx}}=2\text{Re}{\displaystyle \underset{z_i}{\overset{z_f}{}}}𝑑z_1{\displaystyle \underset{z_1}{\overset{z_f}{}}}𝑑z_2g\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{i(z_1z_2)}{L_f}}\right]K_{bc}(0,z_2|0,z_1).`$ (12)   
In Ref.  I have derived the $`p_T`$-integrated radiation rate using the unitarity connection between the probability of $`abc`$ transition and the radiative correction to $`aa`$ transition. The latter is described by the diagram of Fig. 2a, which can be transformed into the graph of Fig. 2b, corresponding to the integral in (12). <sup>3</sup><sup>3</sup>3 The graph of Fig. 2b (and the integral in (12)) in itself requires subtracting of the infinite vacuum counter term. The vacuum term has an imaginary part connected with correction to $`m_a`$, which $`(z_fz_i)`$, and a real part related to the wavefunction renormalization. The latter appears after separating the mass term, and connected with the configurations $`z_1<z_f<z_2`$. This boundary effect is absent if the coupling vanishes at large $`|z|`$. Evidently, in this case the vacuum term does not affect the $`x`$-spectrum. Nonetheless, it is convenient, as was done in Ref. , to keep the vacuum term to simplify the singular $`z`$-integration in (12). One can easy show that the diagram of Fig. 2b can also be obtained directly from that of Fig. 1b after integration over $`\text{q}_b`$.

Equation (9) establishes the theoretical basis for evaluation of the $`p_T`$-dependence of the LPM effect. Note that for transition with the formation length much greater than the target thickness (for the particle $`a`$ incident from infinity) (9) can be expressed through the light-cone wave function $`\mathrm{\Psi }_a^{bc}`$ as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d^3P}{dxd\text{q}_b}}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{(2\pi )^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑𝝉𝑑𝝉^{^{}}\mathrm{exp}(i\text{q}_b𝝉^{^{}})\mathrm{\Psi }_a^{bc}(x,𝝉𝝉^{^{}})\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\overline{a}bc}(𝝉_{bc},𝝉_{ab})\mathrm{\Psi }_a^{bc}(x,𝝉)}.`$ (13)   
Here, $`𝝉_{bc}=𝝉`$, $`𝝉_{ab}=[𝝉(1x)+𝝉^{^{}}x]`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\overline{a}bc}=\left\{1\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\sigma _{\overline{a}bc}}{2}𝑑zn(z)\right]\right\}`$ is the Glauber profile function for interaction of $`\overline{a}bc`$ state with the target. The derivation of (13) is based on a connection between the Green’s function $`K_{bc}`$ in vacuum and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_a^{bc}`$ . Equation (13) generalizes the formula for the $`p_T`$-integrated spectrum of Ref. . It is of interest in its own right. In particular, the leading term in $`n(z)`$ of the rhs in (13) gives a convenient formula for evaluation of the Bethe-Heitler cross section through the light-cone wavefunction.

In general case one can estimate the inclusive cross section using the parametrization $`\sigma _{\overline{a}bc}=C_{ab}𝝉_{ab}^2+C_{bc}𝝉_{bc}^2+C_{ca}𝝉_{ca}^2`$ (here $`𝝉_{ca}=(𝝉_{ab}+𝝉_{bc})`$). Then the Hamiltonian (11) takes the oscillator form with the frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }(z)=\frac{(1i)}{\sqrt{2}}\left[\frac{n(z)C(x)}{E_ax(1x)}\right]^{1/2},`$ with $`C(x)=C_{ab}(1x)^2+C_{bc}+C_{ca}x^2`$. The Green’s function for the oscillator Hamiltonian can be written in the form

$$K_{osc}(𝝉_2,z_2|𝝉_1,z_1)=\frac{\gamma (z_1,z_2)}{2\pi i}\mathrm{exp}\left\{i\left[\alpha (z_1,z_2)𝝉_2^2+\beta (z_1,z_2)𝝉_1^2\gamma (z_1,z_2)𝝉_1𝝉_2\right]\right\},$$
(14)   
where the functions $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$ can be evaluated in the approach of Ref. . Using the parametrization $`\sigma _{\overline{i}i}=C_{ii}𝝉_i^2`$ one can obtain

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d^3P}{dxd\text{q}_b}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^2}}\text{Re}{\displaystyle \underset{z_i}{\overset{z_f}{}}}𝑑z_1{\displaystyle \underset{z_1}{\overset{z_f}{}}}𝑑z_2g{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma (z_1,z_2)}{Q(z_1,z_2)}}\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{i\text{q}_b^2}{4Q(z_1,z_2)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{i(z_1z_2)}{L_f}}\right],`$ (15)   
where the factor $`Q(z_1,z_2)`$ can be expressed through the parameters $`C_{ij}`$, the functions $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$, $`\gamma `$, $`n`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. The formula for this factor is too cumbersome to be presented here.

The generalization of the above results to the realistic QED and QCD Lagrangians reduces to a trivial replacement of the two- and three-body cross sections, and the vertex factor $`g`$. The latter, due to spin effects in the vertex $`abc`$, becomes an operator. The corresponding formulas are given in Refs. . The results obtained can be applied to many problems. In particular in QCD this approach can be used for evaluation of high-$`p_T`$ hadron spectra, the $`p_T`$-dependence of DY pairs and heavy quarks production in $`hA`$-collisions, angular dependence of the parton energy loss in hot QCD matter produced in $`AA`$-collisions. It is also of interest for study the initial condition for quark-gluon plasma in $`AA`$-collisions.   

I would like to thank N.N. Nikolaev and D. Schiff for discussions. I am grateful to J. Speth for the hospitality at FZJ, Jülich, where this work was completed. This work was partially supported by the INTAS grant 96-0597.