Jets and Particle Correlations in Heavy Ion Collisions

Abstract

Measurements of jets and particle correlations in nucleus-nucleus collisions are intended to probe QCD interactions in the high temperature phase, where matter is understood to behave as a quark-gluon plasma. Two probes are reviewed: jets which are used to study the energy loss of hard-scattered partons in this medium and particle correlations which are used to understand collective effects of the bulk matter. Whereas collisions of lighter systems, namely proton-ion and proton-proton, initially served primarily as control experiments, certain (but not all) effects first observed in nucleus-nucleus collisions have proven to be pervasive in these systems. Comparative measurements in these three systems have broadened our understanding of many-body QCD phenomena, and raised new questions. This talk reviewed these recent developments.