arXiv subjects

Carlos A. Salgado

Publications and source records attributed to Carlos A. Salgado.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Factorization and virtuality evolution of jet functions in heavy-ion collisions

We develop a new framework to perform a virtuality-resolved description of jet propagation in heavy-ion collisions using perturbative techniques. The role of virtuality is rigorously identified by first deriving a factorized jet cross section that defines an in-medium jet function. This new definition allows to extend the usual BDMPS-Z formalism to include the virtuality-differential transverse momentum broadening distribution and medium-induced soft gluon spectrum. We study both the cases of a medium which is created with some delay time $τ_0$ after the hard collision as well as the case in which $τ_0\to 0$. Integration over the complete virtuality range recovers the standard BDMPS-Z results, while finite virtuality reveals the interplay between vacuum-like evolution and medium-induced dynamics. We identify the ratio between the medium formation time and the jet formation time as the variable controlling which initial virtualities contribute appreciably to the jet function.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Finite Formation Time Antenna Radiation: Color Spectators Break Single-Emitter BDMPS-Z

We compute the direct contribution to the squared matrix element for the in-medium soft gluon emission off a color-singlet quark-antiquark pair. To do this, we incorporate medium interactions that take place during the finite formation time of the antenna, thereby accounting for a largely neglected source of modifications with respect to the vacuum baseline. As a consequence, non-trivial correlations with the spectator (i.e.\ non-emitting) leg of the antenna emerge, greatly increasing the complexity of the result even at leading-$N_c$ order. The observed modifications entail a significant departure from the limit of instantaneous antenna formation, where the calculation effectively reduces to the well-known BDMPS-Z spectrum.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Azimuthal momentum isotropization in the Quark-Gluon Plasma thermalization

Azimuthal anisotropies coming from the initial state of a heavy-ion collision have been historically disregarded in the study of thermalization because they are expected to be rapidly washed out due to final-state interactions. However, they may be important when one attempts to describe azimuthal correlations observed in the collisions of small systems. In this work, we study how these initial anisotropies relax in the context of the Boltzmann Equation in Diffusion Approximation (BEDA). We find a clear hierarchy in the relaxation time of the anisotropies in terms of each harmonic coefficient. We also explore the evolution of the $p_T$-dependent harmonic coefficients in time, finding a shift in the initial peak towards higher momenta that mimics the experimental data when we perform a phenomenologically motivated simulation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Quantum simulating multi-particle processes in high energy nuclear physics: dijet production and color (de)coherence

Hard scattering events in high-energy collisions produce highly virtual partons that subsequently fragment into collimated hadronic cascades. When such partonic showers evolve in a QCD medium, as in deep-inelastic scattering or heavy-ion collisions, the resulting multi-particle distributions encode information about the surrounding matter. Decades of theoretical developments have led to a consistent and order-by-order improvable perturbative description of the shower. This description needs, however, the non-perturbative input that encodes the structure of the hadronic matter. The determination of such input remains challenging within conventional computational approaches, thereby limiting the applicability of the approach. In this work, we develop a framework that employs quantum simulation techniques to compute multi-particle processes in such environments by mapping partonic cross-sections to quantum circuits. As benchmarks, we analyze dipole formation and the QCD antenna radiation pattern at leading order in the strong coupling constant, comparing the results with analytic estimates in simplified limits. The quantum circuit formulation here introduced naturally extends to higher perturbative orders and enables amplitude-level computations in complex matter backgrounds. This provides a systematic foundation for applying quantum information science methods to study multi-particle dynamics in QCD media.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Light-front Hamiltonian jet evolution in the Glasma

We develop a light-front Hamiltonian formalism to study the real-time quantum evolution of a high-energy quark propagating through the Glasma phase of a heavy-ion collision. In this work, the quark Fock space is truncated to the $\ket{q}$ sector and the wavefunction is expanded in a discrete basis representation, following the time-dependent Basis Light-Front Quantization (tBLFQ) framework. The classical Glasma background fields enter as a time-dependent external potential, and physical observables are extracted as expectation values of quantum operators over the time-evolved state. We compute the transverse momentum broadening and the jet quenching parameter, finding results consistent with classical estimates, including the expected scaling with respect to the saturation momentum, and use them to perform phenomenological estimations for different collision systems. We also study the color rotation of the quark state induced by the Glasma fields, and examine its dependence on the saturation scale and the gauge choice. This formalism allows systematic improvements to include, in particular, non-eikonal propagation and parton splittings that will be considered in forthcoming publications.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Kinetic and canonical momentum broadening in the Glasma

We lay the foundations for a quantum formalism describing the real-time evolution of particles in the Glasma phase of a heavy-ion collision, focusing on the implications of gauge invariance in the definition of the momentum of a particle in a classical background field. We first establish the correspondence between the classical Wong's equations and the Heisenberg equations of motion for a particle in a classical non-Abelian background field. Using this correspondence, we obtain equations of motion for both the kinetic momentum -- the gauge invariant, physically measurable quantity -- and the canonical momentum, which is conjugate to the coordinates in the Hamiltonian. In particular, the kinetic momentum broadening receives non-trivial contributions from the transverse field components, even in the eikonal limit. Finally, we demonstrate that imposing a transverse Coulomb gauge condition at the initial time significantly reduces the accumulation of numerical errors, thereby providing an optimized framework for the forthcoming quantum implementation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Jet quenching and its substructure dependence due to color decoherence

Motivated by color coherence and decoherence effects in the QCD medium, we propose a theoretical framework that combines vacuum-like emissions and medium-induced radiation to study jet quenching and its dependence on jet cone sizes and substructure. In our approach, a jet produced at a hard scale $Q$ first undergoes vacuum-like evolution, as described by the well-established generating-function method in the double logarithmic approximation. These vacuum-like emissions generate subjets at an infrared momentum scale $Q_0$. Each subjet then experiences medium-induced energy loss as described by the BDMPS-Z formalism. By modeling the QCD bulk medium using OSU (2+1)-dimensional viscous hydrodynamics and treating $Q_0$ together with the jet-quenching parameters at the initial proper time of the hydrodynamic evolution as free parameters, our approach provides a very good description of the inclusive jet modification factor $R_{AA}$ for large-radius jets and its dependence on jet substructure in 0-10% PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02~\rm{TeV}$, as measured by the ATLAS experiment.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Multiplicity distributions in QCD jets and jet topics

We evaluate the Koba-Nielsen-Olesen (KNO) scaling functions for quark- and gluon-initiated jets by incorporating energy conservation into the Double Logarithmic Approximation (DLA). The resulting modified DLA (MDLA) expressions differ substantially from the DLA predictions and qualitatively align with the recently proposed QCD-inspired expressions, albeit with some quantitative differences. By fixing the two parameters in the MDLA expressions, we show that the inclusive charged-particle multiplicity distributions of the two leading jets in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV, measured by ATLAS over a wide jet $p_T$ range of $0.1$-$2.5$ TeV, are well described within experimental uncertainties and consistent with PYTHIA simulations. This conclusion is further supported by direct comparisons with quark- and gluon-initiated jet distributions extracted via jet topics, though the propagated uncertainties from experimental data remain sizable.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Directional dead-cone effect in QCD matter

We consider the propagation of heavy quarks through a dense, hydrodynamically flowing QCD medium, representative of the quark-gluon plasma formed in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. Working in the high-energy limit, we identify two novel mass-dependent effects arising from the heavy quark coupling to the local medium flow. The first is the emergence of a tensorial jet transport coefficient, $\hat{q}_{ij}$, which encodes the directional structure of transverse-momentum broadening. The second, named the directional dead-cone effect, corresponds to an anisotropic suppression of medium-induced radiation aligned with the hydrodynamic flow. We discuss how these effects manifest in jet observables and identify distinctive signature of heavy quark dynamics in an evolving medium.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

KNO scaling in quark and gluon jets at the LHC

The Koba-Nielsen-Olesen (KNO) scaling of hadron multiplicity distributions, empirically confirmed to hold approximately in $e^+e^-$ collisions and Deep Inelastic Scattering, has been observed to be violated in hadron-hadron collisions. In this work, we show that the universality of KNO scaling can be extended to hadron-hadron collisions when restricted to QCD jets. We present a comprehensive study of KNO scaling in QCD jets produced in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. Using perturbative QCD calculations in the double logarithmic approximation and PYTHIA simulations, we find that KNO scaling approximately holds for both quark and gluon jets across a broad jet $p_T$ range, from $0.1$ TeV to $2.5$ TeV, at both the parton and hadron levels. Especially, we highlight characteristic differences between the KNO scaling functions of quark and gluon jets, with the quark-jet scaling function lying above that of gluon jets at both low and high multiplicities. This distinction is essential for interpreting inclusive jet data at the LHC. Furthermore, we propose direct experimental tests of KNO scaling in QCD jets at the LHC through quark-gluon discrimination using jet substructure techniques, as demonstrated by applying energy correlation functions to PYTHIA-generated data.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Initial stage jet momentum broadening in tBLFQ formalism

We study the momentum broadening of a high-energy quark jet in the large density gluon medium created right after the collision of two ultrarelativistic heavy nuclei, the Glasma. Previous Glasma studies modeled the jet as a classical probe particle, for which position and momentum are simultaneously determined. In this work, we use the light-front QCD Hamiltonian formalism to treat the jet as a fully quantum state. We compute its real-time evolution while propagating through the Glasma classical background fields, which act as an interaction potential in the quantum evolution of the jet. We present results for the momentum broadening and jet quenching parameter of a jet at mid-rapidity, with special emphasis on the anisotropies between the longitudinal and transverse directions relative to the collision axis. In addition, we compare our results to classical calculations, and initiate a study of the distinction between kinetic and canonic momentum in the context of jet momentum broadening.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Efficient Quantum Simulation of QCD Jets on the Light Front

Quark and gluon jets provide one of the best ways to probe the matter produced in ultrarelativistic high-energy collisions, from cold nuclear matter to hot quark-gluon plasma. In this work, we propose a unified framework for efficient quantum simulation of many-body dynamics using the (3+1)-dimensional QCD Hamiltonian on the light front, particularly suited for studying the scattering of quark and gluon jets on nuclear matter in heavy-ion collisions. We describe scalable methods for mapping physical degrees of freedom onto qubits and for simulating in-medium jet evolution. We then validate our framework by implementing an algorithm that directly maps second-quantized Fock states onto qubits and uses Trotterized simulation for simulating time dynamics. Using a classical emulator, we investigate the evolution of quark and gluon jets with up to three particles in Fock states, extending prior studies. These calculations enable the study of key observables, including jet momentum broadening, particle production, and parton distribution functions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Scattering and gluon emission of physical quarks in a SU(3) colored field

We study the scattering of the gluon-dressed physical quarks, defined as the eigenstates of the vacuum QCD Hamiltonian, off a colored medium. We solve the wavefunction of the physical quark state by diagonalizing the QCD Hamiltonian in vacuum in a $\ket{q}+\ket{qg}$ Fock space, with implementing the sector-dependent mass renormalization scheme. We then perform numerical simulations of the real-time quantum state evolution of the initially dressed quark state at various medium densities. The results are compared with those of an initially bare or off-shell quark states. With the obtained light-front wavefunction of the evolved state, we extract the quark jet transverse momentum broadening, the quenching parameter, the cross section, the gluon emission rate, and the evolution of the invariant mass. The scenario considered is relevant for high energy scattering processes, where the quark originates from far outside the color field describing the scattering target. This investigation on dressed quarks complements our earlier studies of the single quark scattering in the $\ket{q}$ Fock space, and of the bare quark scattering in the $\ket{q}+\ket{qg}$ Fock space, providing a novel systematic description of quark scattering process using a non-perturbative formalism.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quark production in the bottom-up thermalization

We investigate the impact of quark production on bottom-up thermalization in heavy-ion collisions. First, we extend the parametric estimates of bottom-up thermalization in pure gluon systems by incorporating quark production in the weak-coupling (high-energy) limit. Our analysis reveals that quark production does not alter the qualitative features of the three-stage thermalization process in this limit. Furthermore, we obtain the scaling behavior of the quark number density over time at each stage. Then, by solving the Boltzmann equation in diffusion approximation (BEDA) for longitudinally boost-invariant systems, we demonstrate how our detailed numerical simulations approach the predicted three-stage thermalization picture as the strong coupling $α_s$ decreases. Finally, we carry out a detailed comparison of our BEDA results with those obtained by solving the QCD effective kinetic theory for intermediate values of $α_s$, observing remarkably good quantitative agreement between the two approaches.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quark antenna in early stage anisotropic QCD matter

The states of matter produced in the early stage of heavy ion collisions can be highly anisotropic. If such a feature is sufficiently pronounced, one should expect the final particle distribution inside jets to reflect it in the form of non-trivial angle correlations. In this talk, we discuss a first step in exploring such correlations by studying how a $q\bar q$ state produced from an initial unpolarized gluon couples to the anisotropies of an underlying static QCD medium. The medium anisotropy is captured by allowing the jet quenching parameter to take different magnitudes in two orthogonal directions in the plane transverse to the jet axis. We find that the final particle distribution is sensitive to the medium anisotropy in the form of an azimuthal angle modulation, and more importantly, that this effect couples directly to the helicity/spin of the final states, offering a novel way to extract the details of the underlying matter which is not accessible with standard jet observables. We further show how such features can be extracted from the Fourier decomposition of the distribution and from final state transverse spin polarization measurements.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Gluon to $q\bar q$ antenna in anisotropic QCD matter: spin-polarized and azimuthal jet observables

We study the production of a quark-antiquark antenna in the presence of a dense and anisotropic QCD medium. We assume the antenna to originate from an unpolarized gluon state, and consider both massless and massive final states. The medium anisotropy is captured by allowing the jet quenching coefficient to take different magnitudes in orthogonal directions with respect to the jet axis. We find that the final particle distribution is sensitive to the medium anisotropy, and more importantly, that this effect couples directly to the helicity/spin of the final states. We propose to look into these effects by performing a Fourier decomposition of the particle distribution inside the jet. In our medium model, we find that the spin independent terms contribute to the even harmonics of the cosine series. The helicity/spin dependence enters only through the sine Fourier series. We further explore the spin dependence by examining the degree of polarization of the final states in different directions. Our results indicate that the anisotropies present in the QCD matter produced in heavy ion collisions can be probed by studying azimuthal and spin observables inside jets.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Quark production and thermalization of the quark-gluon plasma

We first assemble a full set of the Boltzmann Equation in Diffusion Approximation (BEDA) for studying thermalization/hydrodynamization as well as the production of massless quarks and antiquarks in out of equilibrium systems. In the BEDA, the time evolution of a generic system is characterized by the following space-time dependent quantities: the jet quenching parameter, the effective temperature, and two more for each quark flavor that describe the conversion between gluons and quarks/antiquarks via the $2\leftrightarrow2$ processes. Out of the latter two quantities, an effective net quark chemical potential is defined, which equals the net quark chemical potential after thermal equilibration. We then study thermalization and the production of three flavors of massless quarks and antiquarks in spatially homogeneous systems initially filled only with gluons. A parametric understanding of thermalization and quark production is obtained for either initially very dense or dilute systems, which are complemented by detailed numerical simulations for intermediate values of initial gluon occupancy $f_0$. For a wide range of $f_0$, the final equilibration time is determined to be about one order of magnitude longer than that in the corresponding pure gluon systems. Moreover, during the final stage of the thermalization process for $f_0\geq 10^{-4}$, gluons are found to thermalize earlier than quarks and antiquarks, undergoing the top-down thermalization.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Medium induced gluon spectrum in dense inhomogeneous matter

We calculate the spectrum of gluons sourced by the branching of an energetic quark in the presence of an inhomogeneous QCD medium, focusing on the soft radiation limit. We take into account multiple soft interactions between the partons and matter, treating the transverse variations of its parameters within a gradient expansion. Thus, we derive the general form of the medium induced spectrum up to the first order in gradients, and consider its simplifying limits. In particular, we show that to the leading order in matter gradients and using the harmonic approximation for the scattering potential, the full gluon spectrum can be written in a compact closed form suitable for numerical evaluation. The final gluon transverse momentum tends to align along the anisotropy direction, resulting in a non-trivial azimuthal pattern in the jet substructure.

hep-ph↗