Abstract
The energy loss for a heavy quark propagating through a quark-gluon plasma is calculated to leading order in the QCD coupling constant. Simple formulas for are obtained in the regions and , where is the mass of the heavy quark and is the temperature. The crossover energy between the two regions is determined to be approximately . Under conditions relevant to ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, charm quarks and bottom quarks lie on opposite sides of the crossover energy and therefore experience significantly different energy losses.
- Received 12 July 1991
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.44.R2625
©1991 American Physical Society