• Energy Research

This paper presents a measurement of jet-track correlations in photon-jet events, using 1.72 nb$^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb data at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events with energetic photon-jet pairs are selected, where the photon and jet are approximately back-to-back in azimuth. The angular correlation between jets and charged-particle tracks with transverse momentum ($p_\text{T}$) in the range 0.5-2.0 GeV in the hemisphere opposite to the jet, $|Δϕ\text{(jet,track)}|>π/2$, is measured as a function of their relative pseudorapidity difference, $|Δη\text{(jet,track)}|$. In central Pb+Pb collisions, these correlations are predicted to be sensitive to the diffusion wake in the quark-gluon plasma resulting from the lost energy of high-$p_\text{T}$ partons traversing the plasma, with a characteristic modification as a function of $|Δη\text{(jet,track)}|$. The correlations are examined with different selections on the jet-to-photon $p_\text{T}$ ratio to select events with different degrees of energy loss. No diffusion wake signal is observed within the current sensitivity and upper limits at 95% confidence level on the diffusion wake amplitude are reported. 36 pages in total, author list starting page 19, 8 figures, 0 tables, published in Phys. Rev. C. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2024-01/

This paper presents a measurement of jet-track correlations in photon-jet events, using 1.72 nb$^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb data at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events with energetic photon-jet pairs are selected, where the photon and jet are approximately back-to-back in azimuth. The angular correlation between jets and charged-particle tracks with transverse momentum ($p_\text{T}$) in the range 0.5-2.0 GeV in the hemisphere opposite to the jet, $|Δϕ\text{(jet,track)}|>π/2$, is measured as a function of their relative pseudorapidity difference, $|Δη\text{(jet,track)}|$. In central Pb+Pb collisions, these correlations are predicted to be sensitive to the diffusion wake in the quark-gluon plasma resulting from the lost energy of high-$p_\text{T}$ partons traversing the plasma, with a characteristic modification as a function of $|Δη\text{(jet,track)}|$. The correlations are examined with different selections on the jet-to-photon $p_\text{T}$ ratio to select events with different degrees of energy loss. No diffusion wake signal is observed within the current sensitivity and upper limits at 95% confidence level on the diffusion wake amplitude are reported. 36 pages in total, author list starting page 19, 8 figures, 0 tables, published in Phys. Rev. C. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2024-01/

Parton energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is studied with a measurement of photon-tagged jet production in 1.7 nb$^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb data and 260 pb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ data, both at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV, with the ATLAS detector. The process $pp \to \gamma$+jet+$X$ and its analogue in Pb+Pb collisions is measured in events containing an isolated photon with transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) above $50$ GeV and reported as a function of jet $p_\mathrm{T}$. This selection results in a sample of jets with a steeply falling $p_\mathrm{T}$ distribution that are mostly initiated by the showering of quarks. The $pp$ and Pb+Pb measurements are used to report the nuclear modification factor, $R_\mathrm{AA}$, and the fractional energy loss, $S_\mathrm{loss}$, for photon-tagged jets. In addition, the results are compared with the analogous ones for inclusive jets, which have a significantly smaller quark-initiated fraction. The $R_\mathrm{AA}$ and $S_\mathrm{loss}$ values are found to be significantly different between those for photon-tagged jets and inclusive jets, demonstrating that energy loss in the QGP is sensitive to the colour-charge of the initiating parton. The results are also compared with a variety of theoretical models of colour-charge-dependent energy loss. Physics letters / B 846, 138154 - (2023). doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138154 Published by North-Holland Publ., Amsterdam