Focus talk on interactions between jets and medium

The energy and momentum lost by a hard parton propagating through hot and dense matter has to be redistributed during the nuclear medium evolution. Apart from heating the medium, there is the possibility that collective modes are excited leading to the emergence of Mach cones or Cherenkov radiation. Recent two-particle correlation measurements by STAR [F. Wang [STAR Collaboration], J. Phys. G 30, S1299 (2004) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0404010]; C. Gagliardi, these proceedings] and PHENIX [S. S. Adler et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], arXiv:nucl-ex/0507004; N. Ajitanand, these proceedings] at RHIC indicate that such phenomena may play an important role in understanding the jet-medium interactions. Possible collective modes are discussed and it is demonstrated that Mach cones as created by colorless or colored sound are a possible explanation of the hardronic two-particle correlation data.