Multiplicity distributions inside parton cascades developing in a medium

Abstract

The explanation of the suppression of high-p_T hadron yields at RHIC in terms of jet-quenching implies that the multiplicity distributions of particles inside a jet and jet-like particle correlations differ strongly in nucleus–nucleus collisions at RHIC or at the LHC from those observed at e⁺e^- or hadron colliders. We present a framework for describing the medium-induced modification, which has a direct interpretation in terms of a probabilistic medium-modified parton cascade, and which treats leading and subleading partons on an equal footing. We show that our approach can account for the strong suppression of single inclusive hadron spectra measured in Au–Au collisions at RHIC, and that this implies a characteristic distortion of the single inclusive distribution of soft partons inside the jet. We determine, as a function of the jet energy, to what extent the soft fragments within a jet can be measured above some momentum cut.