We study the production of a large-pT photon in association with a jet in proton-proton collisions. We examine the sensitivity of the jet rapidity distribution to the gluon distribution function in the proton. We then assess the sensitivity of various photon + jet correlation observables to the photon fragmentation functions. We argue that RHIC data on photon-jet correlations can be used to constrain the photon fragmentation functions in a region which was barely accessible in LEP experiments.
We develop the theoretical framework needed to study the distribution of hadrons with general polarization inside jets, with and without transverse momentum measured with respect to the standard jet axis. The key development in this paper, referred t
o as polarized jet fragmentation functions, opens up new opportunities to study both collinear and transverse momentum dependent (TMD) fragmentation functions. As two examples of the developed framework, we study longitudinally polarized collinear $Lambda$ and transversely polarized TMD $Lambda$ production inside jets in both $pp$ and $ep$ collisions. We find that both observables have high potential in constraining spin-dependent fragmentation functions with sizeable asymmetries predicted, in particular, at the future Electron-Ion Collider.
Recently the LHCb collaboration has measured both longitudinal and transverse momentum distribution of hadrons produced inside $Z$-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. These distributions are commonly referred to as j
et fragmentation functions and are characterized by the longitudinal momentum fraction $z_h$ of the jet carried by the hadron and the transverse momentum $j_perp$ with respect to the jet direction. We derive a QCD formalism within Soft-Collinear Effective Theory to describe these distributions and find that the $z_h$-dependence provides information on standard collinear fragmentation functions, while $j_perp$-dependence probes transverse momentum dependent (TMD) fragmentation functions. We perform theoretical calculations and compare our results with the LHCb data. We find good agreement for the intermediate $z_h$ region. For $j_perp$-dependence, we suggest binning in both $z_h$ and $j_perp$, which would lead to a more direct probing of TMD fragmentation functions.
We introduce a broad class of fractal jet observables that recursively probe the collective properties of hadrons produced in jet fragmentation. To describe these collinear-unsafe observables, we generalize the formalism of fragmentation functions, w
hich are important objects in QCD for calculating cross sections involving identified final-state hadrons. Fragmentation functions are fundamentally nonperturbative, but have a calculable renormalization group evolution. Unlike ordinary fragmentation functions, generalized fragmentation functions exhibit nonlinear evolution, since fractal observables involve correlated subsets of hadrons within a jet. Some special cases of generalized fragmentation functions are reviewed, including jet charge and track functions. We then consider fractal jet observables that are based on hierarchical clustering trees, where the nonlinear evolution equations also exhibit tree-like structure at leading order. We develop a numeric code for performing this evolution and study its phenomenological implications. As an application, we present examples of fractal jet observables that are useful in discriminating quark jets from gluon jets.
Next-to-leading order predictions matched to parton showers are compared with recent ATLAS data on inclusive photon production and CMS data on associated photon and jet production in pp and pPb collisions at different centre-of-mass energies of the L
HC. We find good agreement and, as expected, considerably reduced scale uncertainties compared to previous theoretical calculations. Predictions are made for the ratio of inclusive photons over decay photons $R_gamma$, an important quantity to evaluate the significance of additional photon sources, e.g. thermal radiation from a Quark-Gluon-Plasma, and for distributions in the parton momentum fraction in lead ions $x_{rm Pb}^{rm obs}$, that could be determined by ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb in ongoing analyses of photon+jet production in pPb collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV. These data should have an important impact on the determination of nuclear effects such as shadowing at low $x$.
We present a calculation of direct photon production at next-to-leading order of QCD and a matching of this calculation with parton showers using POWHEG BOX. Based on simulations with POWHEG+PYTHIA, we perform a detailed phenomenological analysis of
PHENIX data on prompt photon production and photon-hadron jet correlations in pp collisions at RHIC, considerably improving the description of these data with respect to previous calculations, and we suggest additional interesting analyses.