Understanding LHC jets in the light of RHIC data

TL;DR

This paper analyzes high transverse momentum jets from LHC and RHIC to understand their interactions with the quark-gluon plasma, revealing a consistent picture that explains previously counter-intuitive observations.

Contribution

It presents a unified analysis framework for high P_T hadrons and jets at RHIC and LHC, testing multiple models against data to clarify jet-medium interactions.

Findings

A consistent picture of shower-medium interaction is established.

The analysis explains counter-intuitive experimental results.

Models successfully describe the systematics of high P_T data.

Abstract

Hard probes are a cornerstone in the ongoing program to determine the properties of hot and dense QCD matter as created in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. LHC measurements have so far resulted in a wealth of high P_T data, opening new kinematic windows with high statistics. Yet on first glance, several observations are counter-intuitive and seem to contradict results from the RHIC high P_T program. This calls for a combined analysis of high P_T hadrons and reconstructed jets at RHIC and LHC in a unified framework testing a large number of theoretical models for both medium evolution and shower medium interactions against the systematics of the data. A consistent picture of shower-medium interaction emerges from this analysis which explains where and why results appear counter-intuitive.