Radiative Processes and Jet Modification at the EIC

Abstract

A U.S.-based Electron-Ion Collider will provide the ultimate capability to determine both the structure and properties of nucleons and nuclei, as well as how matter and energy can be transported through a strongly interacting quantum mechanical environment. The production and propagation of long-lived heavy subatomic particles is a unique and critical part of this planned decade-long research program. In these proceedings we report the derivation of all branching processes in nuclei that lead to a modification of semi-inclusive hadron production, jet cross sections, and jet substructure when compared to the vacuum. This work allows for their evaluation to any desired order in opacity. As an example, we show an application to the modification of light hadron and open heavy flavor fragmentation functions at the EIC. We discuss how this observable can shed light on the physics of hadronization and parton energy loss in large nuclei.