Jet quenching and elliptic flow

TL;DR

This paper models how energy loss from jets in quark-gluon plasma affects elliptic flow, showing that jet quenching significantly reduces elliptic flow, which can help identify jet events in heavy ion collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a hydrodynamic simulation approach to study the impact of jet quenching on elliptic flow in heavy ion collisions.

Findings

Elliptic flow is greatly reduced in jet events.

Jet quenching can be used as a signature to identify jet events.

Hydrodynamic evolution models match experimental observations.

Abstract

In jet quenching, a hard QCD parton, before fragmenting into a jet of hadrons, deposits a fraction of its energy in the medium, leading to suppressed production of high-$p_T$ hadrons. Assuming that the deposited energy quickly thermalizes, we simulate the subsequent hydrodynamic evolution of the QGP fluid. Explicit simulation of Au+Au collision with and without a quenching jet indicate that elliptic flow is greatly reduced in a jet event. The result can be used to identify the jet events in heavy ion collisions.