One more ingredient for energy loss quantification

TL;DR

This paper investigates the medium-induced modifications of high-pT parton fragmentation in heavy-ion collisions using direct photon-hadron correlations at RHIC, providing insights into the medium's color charge density.

Contribution

It presents new measurements of direct photon-hadron azimuthal correlations in Au+Au and p+p collisions, utilizing a shower shape analysis to distinguish direct photons, and compares the suppression effects to advance understanding of energy loss.

Findings

Per-trigger away-side yield of direct photons is smaller than from π0 triggers.

Recoil suppression in central Au+Au collisions is similar for direct γ and π0 within uncertainties.

Provides new experimental data on medium modifications of high-pT partons.

Abstract

The recent results at RHIC for direct $\gamma$-charged hadron azimuthal correlations in heavy-ion collisions are presented. We use these correlations to study the color charge density of the medium through the medium-induced modification of high-p$_T$ parton fragmentation. Azimuthal correlations of direct photons at high transverse energy (8 $<$ E$_T$ $<$ 16 GeV) with away-side charged hadrons of transverse momentum (3 $<$ p$_T$ $<$ 6 GeV/c) have been measured over a broad range of centrality for $Au+Au$ collisions and $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV in the STAR experiment. A transverse shower shape analysis in the STAR Barrel Electromagnetic Calorimeter Shower Maximum Detector is used to discriminate between the direct photons and photons from the decays of high-p$_T$ $\pi^{0}$. The per-trigger away-side yield of direct $\gamma$ is smaller than from $\pi^{0}$ triggers in the same centrality class. Within the current uncertainty the recoil suppression in central $Au+Au$ collisions I$_{CP}$ of direct $\gamma$ and $\pi^{0}$ are similar.