Jet tomography of high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions at next-to-leading order

TL;DR

This paper explores how jet observables in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions can reveal details about quark and gluon energy loss mechanisms in quark-gluon plasma, using next-to-leading order calculations.

Contribution

It introduces techniques to use jet measurements for constraining in-medium QCD parton shower models and provides NLO predictions for jet suppression and broadening in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Jet cross sections calculated to ${ m O}(\alpha_s^3)$.

Predictions for jet suppression in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at RHIC.

Insights into medium-induced jet broadening effects.

Abstract

We demonstrate that jet observables are highly sensitive to the characteristics of the vacuum and the in-medium QCD parton showers and propose techniques that exploit this sensitivity to constrain the mechanism of quark and gluon energy loss in strongly-interacting plasmas. As a first example, we calculate the inclusive jet cross section in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions to ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^3)$. Theoretical predictions for the medium-induced jet broadening and the suppression of the jet production rate due to cold and hot nuclear matter effects in Au+Au and Cu+Cu reactions at RHIC are presented.