Origins of the di-jet asymmetry in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The di-jet asymmetry --- the measure of the momentum imbalance in a di-jet system --- is a key jet quenching observable. Using the event generator \jewel we show that the di-jet asymmetry is dominated by fluctuations both in proton-proton and in heavy ion collisions. We discuss how in proton-proton collisions the asymmetry is generated through recoil and out-of-cone radiation. In heavy ion collisions two additional sources contribute to the asymmetry, namely energy loss fluctuations and differences in path length. The latter is shown to be a sub-leading effect. We discuss the implications of our results for the interpretation of this observable.

10 pages, 14 figures and 1 table. Added references, minor text clarifications

References in corpus (4)

• Studies of jet quenching using isolated-photon + jet correlations in PbPb and pp collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV
• Collision Energy Dependence of Viscous Hydrodynamic Flow in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
• On the Evolution of Jet Energy and Opening Angle in Strongly Coupled Plasma
• Di-Jet Imbalance Measurements in Central Au+Au Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV from STAR

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Heavy Ion Collisions: The Big Picture, and the Big Questions
• On the Evolution of Jet Energy and Opening Angle in Strongly Coupled Plasma