Energy Correlators on Tracks: Resummation and Non-Perturbative Effects

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for analyzing energy correlators inside high-energy jets, incorporating tracking information through track functions, and compares resummed predictions with simulations to interpret experimental data.

Contribution

It applies the track function formalism to energy correlators, providing resummed results and analyzing the impact of tracking on higher-point correlators in QCD.

Findings

Tracking has minimal effect on two-point correlator distributions.

Higher-point correlators are significantly affected by tracking information.

Resummed predictions agree with Monte Carlo simulations.

Abstract

Energy correlators measured inside high-energy jets at hadron colliders have recently been demonstrated to provide a new window into both perturbative and non-perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics. A number of the most interesting features of these correlators, namely their universal scaling behavior and the ability to image the confinement transition, require precise angular resolution, necessitating the use of tracking information in experimental measurements. Theoretically, tracking information can be incorporated into the energy correlators using track functions, which are non-perturbative functions describing the fragmentation of quarks and gluons into charged hadrons. In this paper, we apply our recently developed track function formalism to energy correlators, and study in detail the interplay of track functions with perturbative resummation and non-perturbative power corrections. We provide resummed results for the energy correlators at collinear next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy and compare with parton shower Monte Carlo simulations. For the two-point correlator the use of tracking has a minimal effect throughout the entire distribution, but it has a significant effect for higher point correlators. Our results are crucial for the theoretical interpretation of recent experimental measurements of the energy-energy correlators.