Consistent Jet Quenching from QGP to Hadronic Matter

Standard thermal parton distributions lead to unphysical behavior of the transport coefficient ( \hat{q}/T^3 ) near the critical temperature ( T_c ), limiting their applicability in the near-critical and hadronic phases. We introduce a modified medium distribution that regulates scattering rates and reproduces the lattice-motivated temperature dependence of ( \hat{q}/T^3 ). Implemented within a multi-stage jet energy loss framework, this modification enables a consistent treatment of jet–medium interactions across the QGP and hadronic phases. The model provides a simultaneous description of high-( p_T ) hadron and jet suppression (R_{AA}, azimuthal anisotropy (v_2), and jet substructure observables across centralities, establishing a unified, temperature-dependent framework for partonic transport beyond the perturbative QGP regime.