Gradient tomography of jet quenching in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how spatial gradients in the jet transport coefficient cause asymmetries in jet momentum distributions, enabling localization of initial jet production points to study quark-gluon plasma properties.

Contribution

It introduces a method to use spatial gradients of the jet transport coefficient to analyze jet quenching and initial production positions in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Gradient-induced asymmetry in jet momentum distribution.

Dependence of asymmetry on position and propagation length.

Potential to localize initial jet production points.

Abstract

We illustrate with both a Boltzmann diffusion equation and full simulations of jet propagation in heavy-ion collisions within the Linear Boltzmann Transport (LBT) model that the spatial gradient of the jet transport coefficient perpendicular to the propagation direction can lead to a drift and asymmetry in the transverse momentum distribution. Such an asymmetry depends on both the spatial position along the transverse gradience and the propagating length. It can be used to localize the initial jet production positions for more detailed studies of jet quenching and properties of the quark-gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions.