A Monte Carlo Model for 'Jet Quenching'

Abstract

We have developed the Monte Carlo simulation program JEWEL 1.0 (Jet Evolution With Energy Loss), which interfaces a perturbative final state parton shower with medium effects occurring in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. This is done by comparing for each jet fragment the probability of further perturbative splitting with the density-dependent probability of scattering with the medium. A simple hadronisation mechanism is included. In the absence of medium effects, we validate JEWEL against a set of benchmark jet measurements. For elastic interactions with the medium, we characterise not only the medium-induced modification of the jet, but also the jet-induced modification of the medium. Our main physics result is the observation that collisional and radiative medium modifications lead to characteristic differences in the jet fragmentation pattern, which persist above a soft background cut. We argue that this should allow to disentangle collisional and radiative parton energy loss mechanisms by measuring the n-jet fraction or a class of jet shape observables.

Comments: 16 pages, 10 figures, v2: version accepted by EPJ C