Colour Screening, Quark Propagation in Nuclear Matter and the Broadening of the Momentum Distribution of Drell-Yan Pairs

J. Dolejsi, J. Huefner, B. Z. Kopeliovich

Published 1993-05-11Version 1

We calculate the broadening of the transverse momentum distribution of a quark propagating through nuclear matter. Colour screening plays a fundamental role in that it cuts off quark-nucleon interactions with soft gluons. The mean transverse momentum of the quark acquired along its trajectory, observed via Drell-Yan pairs, is related to it the ratio of the total inelastic meson-nucleon cross section it to the meson mean squared radius. Parameter-free calculations agree with the data.