Energy-energy correlators within $Z$-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

Abstract

Energy-energy correlators probe perturbative and nonperturbative QCD regimes of jet formation through momentum-weighted angular correlations between hadrons. First measurements in light-quark-enriched jets are presented for inclusive, like-sign, and opposite-sign charged-hadron pairs, using proton-proton collisions at LHCb. The results support universality of the confinement scale for light-quark-initiated jets across collision systems and the reported transverse momentum scale of the jet. In the charge-dependent measurements, opposite-sign correlations are enhanced as angular separation decreases down to the confinement-scale region, a behavior that is well described by simulations.

arXiv commentAll figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcb-glance.cern.ch/alcm/public/analysis/full-details/6210/ (LHCb public pages)