Eur. Phys. J. C (2018) 78: 529
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5999-2

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Novel subjet observables for jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions

¹ LIP, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 2, 1649-003, Lisbon, Portugal
² IST University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal
³ Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, 1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland
⁴ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
⁵ Institute of Particle Physics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China

^* e-mail: liliana@lip.pt

Received: 26 October 2017
Accepted: 18 June 2018
Published online: 28 June 2018

Abstract

Using a novel observable that relies on the momentum difference of the two most energetic subjets within a jet we study the internal structure of high-energy jets simulated by several Monte Carlo event generators that implement the partonic energy-loss in a dense partonic medium. Based on inclusive jet and dijet production we demonstrate that is an effective tool to discriminate between different models of jet modifications over a broad kinematic range. The new quantity, while preserving the collinear and infrared safety of modern jet algorithms, it is experimentally attractive because of its inherent resilience against backgrounds of heavy-ion collisions.