  The wake induced in a hot QCD medium by a high momentum parton (jet
precursor) is calculated in the framework of linear response theory. Two
different scenarios are discussed: a weakly coupled quark gluon plasma (pQGP)
as described by hard-thermal loop (HTL) perturbation theory and a strongly
cupled QGP (sQGP) with the properties of a quantum liquid. In the latter case
the wake could exhibit a pronounced Mach cone structure. This physical
mechanism could be important for the understanding of preliminary data from the
PHENIX and STAR experiments at RHIC on the angular distribution of low-pt
secondaries stemming from the away-side jet which indicate maxima at
$\Delta\phi=\pi \pm 1.1$.
