# Collisional Energy Loss of a Fast Muon in a Hot QED Plasma

Abstract : We calculate the collisional energy loss of a muon of high energy $E$ in a hot QED plasma beyond logarithmic accuracy, i.e., we determine the constant terms of order O(1) in $-dE/dx \propto \ln{E}+ O(1)$. Considering first the $t$-channel contribution to $-dE/dx$, we show that the terms $\sim O(1)$ are sensitive to the full kinematic region for the momentum exchange $q$ in elastic scattering, including large values $q \sim O(E)$. We thus redress a previous calculation by Braaten and Thoma, which assumed $q << E$ and could not find the correct constant (in the large $E$ limit). The relevance of 'very hard' momentum transfers then requires, for consistency, that $s$ and $u$-channel contributions from Compton scattering must be included, bringing a second modification to the Braaten-Thoma result. Most importantly, Compton scattering yields an additional large logarithm in $-dE/dx$. Our results might have implications in the QCD case of parton collisional energy loss in a quark gluon plasma.
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Journal articles

http://hal.in2p3.fr/in2p3-00177434
Contributor : Dominique Girod <>
Submitted on : Monday, October 8, 2007 - 10:51:17 AM
Last modification on : Tuesday, December 3, 2019 - 1:00:09 PM

### Citation

S. Peigne, A. Peshier. Collisional Energy Loss of a Fast Muon in a Hot QED Plasma. Physical Review D, American Physical Society, 2008, 77, pp.014015. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevD.77.014015⟩. ⟨in2p3-00177434⟩

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