Evolution of the Mean Jet Shape and Dijet Asymmetry Distribution of an Ensemble of Holographic Jets in Strongly Coupled Plasma

Understand

Some of the most important probes of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) produced in heavy ion collisions come from the analysis of how the shape and energy of jets are modified by passage through QGP.

• We model an ensemble of back-to-back dijets to gain a qualitative understanding of how the shapes of the individual jets and the asymmetry in the energy of the pairs of jets are modified by passage through an expanding droplet of strongly coupled plasma, as modeled in a holographic gauge theory.
• We do so by constructing an ensemble of strings in the gravitational description of the gauge theory.
• We model QCD jets in vacuum using strings whose endpoints move "downward" into the gravitational bulk spacetime with some fixed small angle that represents the opening angle (ratio of jet mass to jet energy) that the QCD jet would have in vacuum.