Rethinking Jets with Energy Correlators: Tracks, Resummation and Analytic Continuation

Abstract

We introduce an infinite set of jet substructure observables, derived as projections of $N$-point energy correlators, that are both convenient for experimental studies and maintain remarkable analytic properties derived from their representations in terms of a finite number of light ray operators. We show that these observables can be computed using tracking or charge information with a simple reweighting by integer moments of non-perturbative track or fragmentation functions. Our results for the projected $N$-point correlators are analytic functions of $N$, allowing us to derive resummed results to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy for all $N$. We analytically continue our results to non-integer values of $N$ and define a corresponding analytic continuation of the observable, which we term a $\nu$-correlator, that can be measured on jets of hadrons at the LHC. This enables observables that probe the leading twist collinear dynamics of jets to be placed into a single analytic family, which we hope will lead to new insights into jet substructure.

25 pages, many colorful illustrations. v2. Updated to match journal version