Jet imaging of evolving anisotropic QCD matter

Abstract

The exploration of Quantum Chromodynamics under extreme conditions provides a window into a wide range of fascinating phenomena: from the fundamental properties of the strong interaction, a fundamental force governing the subatomic world, to the conditions present in the primordial Universe, immediately after the Big Bang. This is achieved through the study of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC, where a novel phase of complex nuclear matter is created. This thesis presents a novel formalism for describing jet propagation within this complex matter, designed to use jets as differential probes of its spatio-temporal structure. The three scientific papers comprising this thesis [1, 2, 3] detail this novel formalism, deriving the two dominant perturbative processes of jet modifications, transverse momentum broadening and medium-induced gluon radiation, in the presence of an evolving medium with non-trivial structure.