Jetting Through The Primordial Universe PDF Download

Collisions of heavy ion nuclei at relativistic speeds (close to the speed of light), sometimes referred to as the ``little bang", can recreate conditions similar to the early universe. This high temperature and very dense form of matter, now known to consist of de-confined quarks and gluons is named the quark gluon plasma (QGP). An early signature of the QGP, both theorized and seen in experiments, was the aspect of ``jet quenching" and understanding that phenomenon will be the main focus of this thesis. The concept behind quenching is that a high energetic quark or gluon jet undergoes significant energy loss due to the overall structure modifications related to its fragmentation and radiation patterns as it traverses the medium. The term jet, parameterized by a fixed lateral size or the jet radius, represents the collimated spray of particles arising from an initial parton. In this thesis, Run1 experimental data from pp and heavy ion collisions at the CERN LHC is analyzed with the CMS detector. Analysis steps involved in the measurement of the inclusive jet cross section in pp, pPb and PbPb systems are outlined in detail. The pp jet cross section is compared with next to leading order theoretical calculations supplemented with non perturbative corrections for three different jet radii highlighting better comparisons for larger radii jets. Measurement of the jet yield followed by the nuclear modification factors in proton-lead at 5.02 TeV and lead-lead collisions at 2.76 TeV are presented. Since pp data at 5.02 TeV was not available in Run1, an extrapolation method is performed to derive a reference pp spectra. A new data driven technique is introduced to estimate and correct for the fake jet contribution in PbPb for low transverse momenta jets. The nuclear modification factors studied in this thesis show jet quenching to be attributed to final state effects, have a strong correlation to the event centrality, a weak inverse correlation to the jet transverse momenta and an apparent independence on the jet radii in the kinematic range studied. These measurements are compared with leading theoretical model calculations and other experimental results at the LHC leading to unanimous agreement on the qualitative nature of jet quenching. This thesis also features novel updates to the Monte Carlo heavy ion event generator JEWEL (Jet Evolution With Energy Loss) including the boson-jet production channels and also background subtraction techniques to reduce the effect of the thermal background. Keeping track of these jet-medium recoils in JEWEL due to the background subtraction techniques significantly improves its descriptions of several jet structure and sub-structure measurements at the LHC.