Event Plane Dependence of Jet-Hadron Correlations in Au–Au Collisions at √<span style="text-decoration: overline;"><em>s_NN</em></span> = 200 GeV with the STAR Detector at RHIC

Abstract

The phenomenon of jet quenching indicates that partons lose energy as they traverse the hot dense medium. By restricting a trigger jet in azimuth relative to the event plane, we are given another tool, which allows us to study the path length dependence of medium modifications. Measurements of angular correlations relative to the event plane between reconstructed R = 0 . 4 full jets and charged hadrons are presented in mid-peripheral Au–Au collisions at s N N = 200 GeV with the STAR detector at RHIC. A robust and precise method, known as the Reaction Plane Fit (RPF) method is used to remove the complex, flow-dominated heavy-ion background from the correlation functions. Quantified through yield ratios, we study the event plane dependence of jet-correlated yields. The yield ratios are compared to prior measurements made by the ALICE Collaboration in Pb–Pb collisions at s N N = 2 . 76 TeV. With increased statistics and smaller uncertainties, the results from STAR show a similar conclusion to that of ALICE, that within uncertainties this measurement shows no significant path length dependence of medium modifications.

Keywords

• STAR
• jets
• jet-hadron correlations
• energy loss
• path length dependence
• background subtraction
• RPF