Jet quenching and heavy quarks

TL;DR

This paper reviews the understanding of jet quenching at high transverse momentum in heavy-ion collisions, focusing on how the QCD shower evolution is affected by the medium, and explores the unique aspects of heavy quark jets due to quark mass effects.

Contribution

It discusses the modifications of QCD shower evolution for heavy quarks and reviews attempts to explain heavy quark phenomenology at high P_T in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Evidence supports medium-modified QCD showers for light partons.

Heavy quark jets exhibit different behavior due to quark mass effects.

Several models attempt to explain heavy quark jet quenching phenomena.

Abstract

Jet quenching and more generally physics at high transverse momentum P_T scales is a cornerstone of the heavy-ion physics program at the LHC. In this work, the current understanding of jet quenching in terms of a QCD shower evolution being modified by the surrounding medium is reviewed along with the evidence for this picture from light parton high P_T observables. Conceptually, the same QCD shower description should also be relevant for heavy quarks, but with several important modifications introduced by the quark masses. Thus especially in the limit of small jet energy over quark mass E_jet/m_q, the relevant physics may be rather different from light quark jets, and several attempts to explain the observed phenomenology of heavy quarks at high P_T are discussed here.