Location: Cyclotron Building (434), Seminar Room
Dr. Wei Liu, Texas A&M University
Abstract:
We discuss the flavor of leading jet partons as a valuable probe of nuclear matter. We point out that the coupling of jets to nuclear matter naturally leads to an alteration of jet chemistry even at high transverse momentum, pT. In particular, QCD jets coupling to a chemically equilibrated quark gluon plasma in nuclear collisions, will lead to hadron ratios at high transverse momentum, pT, that can differ significantly from their counterparts in p+p collisions. Flavor measurements could complement energy loss as a way to study interactions of hard QCD jets with nuclear matter. We present some estimates for the rate of jet conversions in a consistent Fokker-Planck framework and their impact on future high-pT identified hadron measurements at RHIC and LHC. We also suggest some novel observables to test flavor effects.