- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review C

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Jet cone size dependence of single inclusive jet suppression due to jet quenching in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV

Qing-Fei Han1, Man Xie1,2,*, and Han-Zhong Zhang1,†

  • *Contact author: manxie@wust.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: zhanghz@mail.ccnu.edu.cn
PDF

Phys. Rev. C 113, 044909 – Published 13 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1j7c-rmkn

Abstract

Jet suppression in high-energy heavy-ion collisions results from jet energy loss and transverse-momentum broadening during jet propagation through the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The jet cone size (R) dependence of this suppression offers crucial insights into the energy loss mechanisms and QGP transport properties. In our study, we implement a comprehensive approach within the perturbative QCD parton model that incorporates both elastic and inelastic energy loss mechanisms. For elastic processes the contribution from recoiling thermal partons reduces the net in-cone energy loss for a given jet radius. For inelastic processes, we account for the angular distribution of radiated gluons, the thermalization of soft gluons, and transverse-momentum broadening. Using this framework, we calculate the jet nuclear modification factors (RAA) and their double ratios RAA(R=0.2–1.0)/RAA(R=0.2), and systematically compare with ALICE, ATLAS, and CMS data in 0–10% and 30–50% Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV. Numerical results show that RAA increases with the cone size R because the in-cone energy loss decreases at larger radii. Specifically, as the radius R grows, the probability for elastically scattered partons to escape the jet cone and the likelihood for radiated gluons to fall outside the cone both decrease, resulting in a net reduction of energy loss. The RAA double ratios are approximately unity for small radii (R=0.4 relative to R=0.2) and at high pT≳200GeV/c, in agreement with the data within uncertainties.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (99)

  1. K. Adcox et al. (PHENIX Collaboration), Suppression of hadrons with large transverse momentum in central Au+Au collisions at sNN=130GeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 022301 (2001)..
  2. K. Adcox et al. (PHENIX Collaboration), Centrality dependence of the high pT charged hadron suppression in Au+Au collisions at sNN=130GeV, Phys. Lett. B 561, 82 (2003).
  3. S. S. Adler et al. (PHENIX Collaboration), Suppressed π0 production at large transverse momentum in central Au+Au Collisions at sNN=200GeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 072301 (2003).
  4. A. Adare et al. (PHENIX Collaboration), Neutral pion production with respect to centrality and reaction plane in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV, Phys. Rev. C 87, 034911 (2013).
  5. J. Adams et al. (STAR Collaboration), Transverse-momentum and collision-energy dependence of high- pT hadron suppression in Au+Au collisions at ultrarelativistic energies, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 172302 (2003).
  6. J. Adams et al. (STAR Collaboration), Direct observation of dijets in central Au+Au collisions at sNN=200GeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 162301 (2006).
  7. L. Adamczyk et al. (STAR Collaboration), Measurements of jet quenching with semi-inclusive hadron+jet distributions in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV, Phys. Rev. C 96, 024905 (2017).
  8. K. Aamodt et al. (ALICE Collaboration), Charged-particle multiplicity density at midrapidity in central Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 252301 (2010).
  9. K. Aamodt et al. (ALICE Collaboration), Centrality dependence of the charged-particle multiplicity density at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 032301 (2011).
  10. S. Chatrchyan et al. (CMS Collaboration), Dependence on pseudorapidity and on centrality of charged hadron production in PbPb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2011) 141.
  11. S. Chatrchyan et al. (CMS Collaboration), Centrality dependence of dihadron correlations and azimuthal anisotropy harmonics in PbPb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV, Eur. Phys. J. C 72, 2012 (2012).
  12. G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), Measurement of the pseudorapidity and transverse momentum dependence of the elliptic flow of charged particles in lead–lead collisions at sNN=2.76TeV with the ATLAS detector, Phys. Lett. B 707, 330 (2012).
  13. G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), Measurement of the distributions of event-by-event flow harmonics in lead-lead collisions at sNN=2.76TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2013) 183.
  14. M. Gyulassy and X.-n. Wang, Multiple collisions and induced gluon bremsstrahlung in QCD, Nucl. Phys. B 420, 583 (1994).
  15. R. Baier, Y. L. Dokshitzer, A. H. Mueller, S. Peigne, and D. Schiff, Radiative energy loss and p⊥-broadening of high energy partons in nuclei, Nucl. Phys. B 484, 265 (1997).
  16. M. Gyulassy, P. Levai, and I. Vitev, Non-Abelian energy loss at finite opacity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 5535 (2000).
  17. X.-f. Guo and X.-N. Wang, Multiple scattering, parton energy loss, and modified fragmentation functions in deeply inelastic eA scattering, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 3591 (2000).
  18. W.-t. Deng and X.-N. Wang, Multiple parton scattering in nuclei: Modified Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi (DGLAP) evolution for fragmentation functions, Phys. Rev. C 81, 024902 (2010).
  19. G.-Y. Qin and X.-N. Wang, Jet quenching in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 24, 1530014 (2015).
  20. A. Adare et al. (PHENIX Collaboration), Suppression pattern of neutral pions at high transverse momentum in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200GeV and constraints on medium transport coefficients, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 232301 (2008).
  21. G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), Measurement of charged-particle spectra in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2015) 050.
  22. V. Khachatryan et al. (CMS Collaboration), Charged-particle nuclear modification factors in PbPb and pPb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2017) 039.
  23. S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), Transverse momentum spectra and nuclear modification factors of charged particles in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2018) 013.
  24. J. Adam et al. (STAR Collaboration), Measurement of inclusive charged-particle jet production in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV, Phys. Rev. C 102, 054913 (2020).
  25. G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), Measurements of the nuclear modification factor for jets in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV with the ATLAS detector, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 072302 (2015).
  26. G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), Measurement of suppression of large-radius jets and its dependence on substructure in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV with the ATLAS Detector, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 172301 (2023).
  27. J. Adam et al. (ALICE Collaboration), Measurement of jet suppression in central Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV, Phys. Lett. B 746, 1 (2015).
  28. S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), Measurement of the radius dependence of charged-particle jet suppression in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV, Phys. Lett. B 849, 138412 (2024).
  29. V. Khachatryan et al. (CMS Collaboration), Measurement of inclusive jet cross sections in pp and PbPb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV, Phys. Rev. C 96, 015202 (2017).
  30. A. M. Sirunyan et al. (CMS Collaboration), First measurement of large area jet transverse momentum spectra in heavy-ion collisions, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2021) 284.
  31. M. Gyulassy and M. Plumer, Jet quenching in dense matter, Phys. Lett. B 243, 432 (1990).
  32. X.-N. Wang and M. Gyulassy, Gluon shadowing and jet quenching in A+A collisions at √s=200AGeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 1480 (1992).
  33. H. Zhang, J. F. Owens, E. Wang, and X.-N. Wang, Tomography of high-energy nuclear collisions with photon-hadron correlations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 032302 (2009).
  34. H. Zhang, J. F. Owens, E. Wang, and X.-N. Wang, Dihadron tomography of high-energy nuclear collisions in next-to-leading order perturbative QCD, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 212301 (2007).
  35. X.-F. Chen, T. Hirano, E. Wang, X.-N. Wang, and H. Zhang, Suppression of high-pT hadrons in Pb+Pb collisions at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, Phys. Rev. C 84, 034902 (2011).
  36. M. Xie, S.-Y. Wei, G.-Y. Qin, and H.-Z. Zhang, Extracting jet transport coefficient via single hadron and dihadron productions in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, Eur. Phys. J. C 79, 589 (2019).
  37. M. Xie, X.-N. Wang, and H.-Z. Zhang, γ -hadron spectra in p+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV, Phys. Rev. C 103, 034911 (2021).
  38. B. Schenke, C. Gale, and S. Jeon, MARTINI: An event generator for relativistic heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 80, 054913 (2009).
  39. G.-Y. Qin, J. Ruppert, C. Gale, S. Jeon, G. D. Moore, and M. G. Mustafa, Radiative and collisional jet energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma at the BNL relativistic heavy ion collider, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 072301 (2008).
  40. J. Xu, J. Liao, and M. Gyulassy, Consistency of perfect fluidity and jet quenching in semi-quark-gluon monopole plasmas, Chin. Phys. Lett. 32, 092501 (2015).
  41. K. M. Burke et al. (JET Collaboration), Extracting the jet transport coefficient from jet quenching in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 90, 014909 (2014).
  42. S. Shi, J. Liao, and M. Gyulassy, Global constraints from RHIC and LHC on transport properties of QCD fluids in CUJET/CIBJET framework, Chin. Phys. C 43, 044101 (2019).
  43. A. Kumar et al. (JETSCAPE Collaboration), Inclusive jet and hadron suppression in a multistage approach, Phys. Rev. C 107, 034911 (2023).
  44. M. Xie, W. Ke, H. Zhang, and X.-N. Wang, Global constraint on the jet transport coefficient from single-hadron, dihadron, and γ-hadron spectra in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 109, 064917 (2024).
  45. M. Xie, W. Ke, H. Zhang, and X.-N. Wang, Information-field-based global Bayesian inference of the jet transport coefficient, Phys. Rev. C 108, L011901 (2023).
  46. Y. He, S. Cao, W. Chen, T. Luo, L.-G. Pang, and X.-N. Wang, Interplaying mechanisms behind single inclusive jet suppression in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 99, 054911 (2019).
  47. M. Xie, Q.-F. Han, E.-K. Wang, B.-W. Zhang, and H.-Z. Zhang, The medium-temperature dependence of jet transport coefficient in high-energy nucleus–nucleus collisions, Nucl. Sci. Tech. 35, 125 (2024).
  48. Q.-F. Han, M. Xie, and H.-Z. Zhang, Extracting the jet transport coefficient from hadron suppressions by confronting current NLO parton fragmentation functions, Eur. Phys. J. Plus 137, 1056 (2022).
  49. G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), Measurement of the jet radius and transverse momentum dependence of inclusive jet suppression in lead–lead collisions at sNN=2.76TeV with the ATLAS detector, Phys. Lett. B 719, 220 (2013).
  50. B. Abelev et al. (ALICE Collaboration), Measurement of charged jet suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2014) 013.
  51. S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), Measurements of inclusive jet spectra in pp and central Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV, Phys. Rev. C 101, 034911 (2020).
  52. M. Aaboud et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), Measurement of the nuclear modification factor for inclusive jets in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV with the ATLAS detector, Phys. Lett. B 790, 108 (2019).
  53. Y.-T. Chien and I. Vitev, Towards the understanding of jet shapes and cross sections in heavy ion collisions using soft-collinear effective theory, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2016) 023.
  54. Z.-B. Kang, F. Ringer, and I. Vitev, Inclusive production of small radius jets in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Lett. B 769, 242 (2017).
  55. K. C. Zapp, F. Krauss, and U. A. Wiedemann, A perturbative framework for jet quenching, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2013) 080.
  56. R. Kunnawalkam Elayavalli and K. C. Zapp, Medium response in JEWEL and its impact on jet shape observables in heavy ion collisions, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2017) 141.
  57. Y. He, T. Luo, X.-N. Wang, and Y. Zhu, Linear Boltzmann transport for jet propagation in the quark-gluon plasma: Elastic processes and medium recoil, Phys. Rev. C 91, 054908 (2015); 97, 019902(E) (2018).
  58. D. Pablos, Jet suppression from a small to intermediate to large radius, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 052301 (2020).
  59. Y. Mehtar-Tani, D. Pablos, and K. Tywoniuk, Cone-size dependence of jet suppression in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 252301 (2021).
  60. A. Takacs and K. Tywoniuk, Quenching effects in the cumulative jet spectrum, J. High Energy Phys. 10 (2021) 038.
  61. Y. Mehtar-Tani, D. Pablos, and K. Tywoniuk, Jet suppression and azimuthal anisotropy from RHIC to LHC, Phys. Rev. D 110, 014009 (2024).
  62. X.-N. Wang, S.-Y. Wei, and H.-Z. Zhang, Effect of medium recoil and pT broadening on single inclusive jet suppression in high-energy heavy-ion collisions in the high-twist approach, Phys. Rev. C 96, 034903 (2017).
  63. X.-N. Wang and X.-f. Guo, Multiple parton scattering in nuclei: Parton energy loss, Nucl. Phys. A 696, 788 (2001).
  64. M. Cacciari, G. P. Salam, and G. Soyez, The anti-kt jet clustering algorithm, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2008) 063.
  65. N. Kidonakis and J. F. Owens, Effects of higher-order threshold corrections in high-ET jet production, Phys. Rev. D 63, 054019 (2001).
  66. D. de Florian, P. Hinderer, A. Mukherjee, F. Ringer, and W. Vogelsang, Approximate next-to-next-to-leading order corrections to hadronic jet production, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 082001 (2014).
  67. A. Banfi, G. P. Salam, and G. Zanderighi, Infrared-safe definition of jet flavour, Eur. Phys. J. C 47, 113 (2006).
  68. Z.-B. Kang, F. Ringer, and I. Vitev, The semi-inclusive jet function in SCET and small radius resummation for inclusive jet production, J. High Energy Phys. 10 (2016) 125.
  69. M. Dasgupta, F. Dreyer, G. P. Salam, and G. Soyez, Small-radius jets to all orders in QCD, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2015) 039.
  70. M. Dasgupta, F. A. Dreyer, G. P. Salam, and G. Soyez, Inclusive jet spectrum for small-radius jets, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2016) 057.
  71. J. Casalderrey-Solana, D. Gulhan, G. Milhano, D. Pablos, and K. Rajagopal, Angular structure of jet quenching within a hybrid strong/weak coupling model, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2017) 135.
  72. J. F. Owens, Large-momentum-transfer production of direct photons, jets, and particles, Rev. Mod. Phys. 59, 465 (1987).
  73. T.-J. Hou et al., New CTEQ global analysis of quantum chromodynamics with high-precision data from the LHC, Phys. Rev. D 103, 014013 (2021).
  74. B. W. Harris and J. F. Owens, Two cutoff phase space slicing method, Phys. Rev. D 65, 094032 (2002).
  75. P. Jacobs and G. Cooper, Spatial distribution of initial interactions in high energy collisions of heavy nuclei, arXiv:nucl-ex/0008015.
  76. X.-N. Wang, A pQCD-based approach to parton production and equilibration in high-energy nuclear collisions, Phys. Rep. 280, 287 (1997).
  77. S.-y. Li and X.-N. Wang, Gluon shadowing and hadron production at RHIC, Phys. Lett. B 527, 85 (2002).
  78. V. Emel'yanov, A. Khodinov, S. R. Klein, and R. Vogt, Effect of shadowing on initial conditions, transverse energy, and hard probes in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 61, 044904 (2000).
  79. T. Hirano and Y. Nara, Interplay between soft and hard hadronic components for identified hadrons in relativistic heavy ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 69, 034908 (2004).
  80. K. J. Eskola, P. Paakkinen, H. Paukkunen, and C. A. Salgado, EPPS21: A global QCD analysis of nuclear PDFs, Eur. Phys. J. C 82, 413 (2022).
  81. E. Eichten, I. Hinchliffe, K. D. Lane, and C. Quigg, Supercollider physics, Rev. Mod. Phys. 56, 579 (1984); 58, 1065(E) (1986).
  82. Z.-Q. Liu, H. Zhang, B.-W. Zhang, and E. Wang, Quantifying jet transport properties via large pT hadron production, Eur. Phys. J. C 76, 20 (2016).
  83. B.-W. Zhang and X.-N. Wang, Multiple parton scattering in nuclei: Beyond helicity amplitude approximation, Nucl. Phys. A 720, 429 (2003).
  84. B.-W. Zhang, E.-k. Wang, and X.-N. Wang, Multiple parton scattering in nuclei: Heavy quark energy loss and modified fragmentation functions, Nucl. Phys. A 757, 493 (2005).
  85. M. L. Miller, K. Reygers, S. J. Sanders, and P. Steinberg, Glauber modeling in high-energy nuclear collisions, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 57, 205 (2007).
  86. S. K. Das, F. Scardina, S. Plumari, and V. Greco, Toward a solution to the RAA and v2 puzzle for heavy quarks, Phys. Lett. B 747, 260 (2015).
  87. S. Cao, L.-G. Pang, T. Luo, Y. He, G.-Y. Qin, and X.-N. Wang, RAA vs. v2 of heavy and light hadrons within a linear Boltzmann transport model, Nucl. Part. Phys. Proc. 289-290, 217 (2017).
  88. J. Xu, J. Liao, and M. Gyulassy, Bridging soft-hard transport properties of quark-gluon plasmas with CUJET3.0, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2016) 169.
  89. W. Ke and X.-N. Wang, QGP modification to single inclusive jets in a calibrated transport model, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2021) 041.
  90. L.-G. Pang, H. Petersen, and X.-N. Wang, Pseudorapidity distribution and decorrelation of anisotropic flow within the open-computing-language implementation CLVisc hydrodynamics, Phys. Rev. C 97, 064918 (2018).
  91. L. Pang, Q. Wang, and X.-N. Wang, Effects of initial flow velocity fluctuation in event-by-event (3+1)D hydrodynamics, Phys. Rev. C 86, 024911 (2012).
  92. L.-G. Pang, Y. Hatta, X.-N. Wang, and B.-W. Xiao, Analytical and numerical Gubser solutions of the second-order hydrodynamics, Phys. Rev. D 91, 074027 (2015).
  93. J. S. Moreland, J. E. Bernhard, and S. A. Bass, Alternative ansatz to wounded nucleon and binary collision scaling in high-energy nuclear collisions, Phys. Rev. C 92, 011901 (2015).
  94. X.-N. Wang, Energy dependence of jet quenching and lifetime of dense matter in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 70, 031901 (2004).
  95. ATLAS Collaboration, Measurement of suppression of large-radius jets and its dependence on substructure in Pb+Pb at 5.02 TeV by ATLAS detector, CERN Report No. ATLAS-CONF-2019-056, 2019 (unpublished).
  96. T. Sjöstrand, S. Mrenna, and P. Z. Skands, A brief introduction to PYTHIA 8.1, Comput. Phys. Commun. 178, 852 (2008).
  97. J.-W. Qiu, F. Ringer, N. Sato, and P. Zurita, Factorization of jet cross sections in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 252301 (2019).
  98. S. Cao et al. (JETSCAPE Collaboration), Determining the jet transport coefficient q̂ from inclusive hadron suppression measurements using Bayesian parameter estimation, Phys. Rev. C 104, 024905 (2021).
  99. R. Ehlers et al. (JETSCAPE Collaboration), Bayesian inference analysis of jet quenching using inclusive jet and hadron suppression measurements, Phys. Rev. C 111, 054913 (2025).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. C 113, 044909– Published 13 April, 2026
  • Received 23 September 2025
  • Revised 26 February 2026
  • Accepted 13 March 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation