Elucidating Jet Energy Loss in Heavy Ion Collisions

TL;DR

This paper discusses the potential of using full jet reconstruction at the LHC to directly measure jet energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma created in heavy ion collisions, focusing on ATLAS detector capabilities.

Contribution

It presents the current performance of jet reconstruction in heavy ion events and explores methods for measuring jet energy loss through various correlation techniques.

Findings

Jet reconstruction performance in heavy ion environments is promising.

Full jet reconstruction enables direct measurement of jet quenching.

Potential for detailed studies of medium-induced energy loss effects.

Abstract

Very soon the LHC will provide beams for heavy ion collisions at 5.52 TeV/nucleon. This center-of-mass energy results in a large cross-section for producing high-$E_T$ ($>$ 50 GeV) jets that are distinct from the soft, underlying event. This brings with it the possibility of performing full jet reconstruction to directly study jet energy loss in the medium produced in heavy ion collisions. In this note, we present the current state of jet reconstruction performance studies in heavy ion events using the ATLAS detector. We also discuss the possibilities of energy loss measurements available with full jet reconstruction: single jet $R_{AA}$ and di-jet and $\gamma$-jet correlations.