This article presents the motivation for developing a comprehensive modeling framework in which different models and parameter inputs can be compared and evaluated for a large range of jet-quenching observables measured in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC. The concept of a framework us discussed within the context of recent efforts by the JET Collaboration, the authors of JEWEL, and the JETSCAPE collaborations. The framework ingredients for each of these approaches is presented with a sample of important results from each. The role of advanced statistical tools in comparing models to data is also discussed, along with the need for a more detailed accounting of correlated errors in experimental results.
A parton produced with a high transverse momentum in a hard collision is regenerating its color field, intensively radiating gluons and losing energy. This process cannot last long, if it ends up with production of a leading hadron carrying the main fraction z_h of the initial parton momentum. So energy conservation imposes severe constraints on the length scale of production of a single hadron with high pT. As a result, the main reason for hadron quenching observed in heavy ion collisions, is not energy loss, but attenuation of the produced colorless dipole in the created dense medium. The latter mechanism, calculated with the path-integral method, explains well the observed suppression of light hadrons and the elliptic flow in a wide range of energies, from the lowest energy of RHIC up to LHC, and in a wide range of transverse momenta. The values of the transport coefficient extracted from data range within 1-2 GeV^2/fm, dependent on energy, and agree well with the theoretical expectations.
The ratio of nuclear modification factors of high-$p_T$ heavy-flavored mesons tolight-flavored hadrons (heavy-to-light ratio) is shown to be a sensitive tool to test medium-induced energy loss at RHIC and LHC energies. Heavy-to-light ratios of $D$ mesons at RHIC in the region $7<p_T<12$ GeV, and of $D$ and $B$ mesons at the LHC in the region $10<p_T<20$ GeV, are proposed for such a test. Finally, the different contributions to the nuclear modification factor for electrons at RHIC are analyzed. Preliminary PHENIX and STAR data are compatible with radiative energy loss provided the contribution of electrons from beauty decays is small compared to that from charm.
The production of vector boson tagged heavy quark jets provides potentially new tools to study jet quenching, especially the mass hierarchy of parton energy loss. In this work, we present the first theoretical study on $Z^0,+,$b-jet in heavy-ion collisions. Firstly utilizing a Monte Carlo transport model, our simulations give nice descriptions of the azimuthal angle correlation $Deltaphi_{jZ}$, transverse momentum imbalance $x_{jZ}$ for $Z^0,+,$jet as well as the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ of inclusive b-jet in Pb+Pb collisions. Then we calculate the azimuthal angular correlation $Deltaphi_{bZ}$ of $Z^0,+,$b-jet and $Deltaphi_{bb}$ of $Z^0,+,2,$b-jets in central Pb+Pb collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}=$~5.02 TeV. We find that the medium modification of the azimuthal angular correlation for $Z^0,+,$b-jet has a weaker dependence on $Deltaphi_{bZ}$, as compared to that for $Z^0,+,$jet. With the high purity of quark jet in $Z^0,+,$(b-)jet production, we calculate the momentum imbalance distribution of $x_{bZ}$ of $Z^0,+,$b-jet in Pb+Pb collisions. We observe a smaller shifting of the mean value of momentum imbalance for $Z^0,+,$b-jet in Pb+Pb collisions $Deltaleftlangle x_{bZ} rightrangle$, as compared to that for $Z^0,+,$jet. In addition, we investigate the nuclear modification factors of tagged jet cross sections $I_{AA}$, and show a much stronger suppression of $I_{AA}$ in $Z^0,+,$jet than that of $Z^0,+,$b-jet in central Pb+Pb collisions.
The observed inclusive jet suppression in heavy-ion collisions at LHC has a very weak $p_{T}$ dependence over a large range of $p_{T}$ = 50-1000 GeV and is almost independent of the colliding energy, though the initial energy density of the bulk medium has increased from $sqrt{s}$ = 2.76 to 5.02 TeV by about 20%. This interesting phenomenon is investigated in the linear Boltzmann transport (LBT) model for jet propagation in an event-by-event 3+1D hydro background. We show that the $p_{T}$ dependence of jet $R_{AA}$ is determined by the initial spectrum in $p+p$ collisions and $ p_{T} $ dependence of jet energy loss. Furthermore, jet energy loss distributions for inclusive jet and $ gamma-$jet at both LHC energies are extracted directly from experimental data through the state-of-art Bayesian analysis. The averaged jet energy loss has a weak $p_{T}$ dependence and the scaled jet energy loss distributions have a large width, both of which are consistent with the LBT simulations and indicate that jet quenching is caused by only a few out-of-cone jet medium scatterings.