Observation of Enhanced Long-Range Elliptic Anisotropies Inside High-Multiplicity Jets in pp Collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract

A search for collective effects inside jets produced in proton-proton collisions is performed via correlation measurements of charged particles using the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The analysis ffiffi uses data collected at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kT algorithm with a distance parameter of 0.8 and are required to have transverse momentum greater than 550 GeV and pseudorapidity (equation presented). Two-particle correlations among the charged particles within the jets are studied as functions of the particles' azimuthal angle and pseudorapidity separations (Δϕ* and Δη*) in a jet coordinate basis, where particles' η*, ϕ* are defined relative to the direction of the jet. The correlation functions are studied in classes of in-jet charged-particle multiplicity up to Njch ≈ 100. Fourier harmonics are extracted from long-range azimuthal correlation functions to characterize azimuthal anisotropy for (equation presented). For low-Njch jets, the long-range elliptic anisotropic harmonic, v*2, is observed to decrease with Njch. This trend is well described by Monte Carlo event generators. However, a rising trend for v*2 emerges at (equation presented), hinting at a possible onset of collective behavior, which is not reproduced by the models tested. This observation yields new insights into the dynamics of jet evolution in the vacuum. © 2024 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration.