Jet-medium interactions: Wakes in the QCD medium

Abstract

We calculate the wake induced in a hot, dense QCD medium by a fast parton in the framework of linear response theory. We discuss two different scenarios: i) a weakly coupled quark gluon plasma (pQGP) described by hardthermal loop (HTL) perturbation theory and ii) a scenario where the plasma has the properties of a quantum liquid. We show that a Mach cone can appear in the second scenario, but not in the first one.