Henry, Thomas William (2007-04). Reconstruction and attributes of jets observed in (square root of s) = 200 GeV proton-proton and deuteron-gold collisions at STAR. Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
The STAR collaboration recorded s =200 GeV per nucleon d+Au and p+p collision events during the year 2003 RHIC run. In the p+p and the d+Au data samples, it is possible to reconstruct jets and make comparisons between them. This dissertation describes the reconstructed jet sample from the p+p events, the measurements of the jet jT distribution which quantifies the shape of the jet perpendicular to the jet direction, the jet fragmentation function (z), which quantifies the fraction of jet momentum carried by the jet particles, and the width of the parton momentum broadening distribution (kT). This dissertation also describes the comparison of these results to the reconstructed jet sample from d+Au events. Measurements of jet jT and jet fragmentation from p+p, d+Au, and PYTHIA are compared. The z and jT distributions from p+p and also d+Au are found to be consistent with PYTHIA event simulation version 6.205. RMS(jT) equals 612A?A+-12A?A+-30 MeV/c for p+p, and RMS(jT) equals 630A?A+-13A?A+-30 MeV/c for d+Au. The p+p kT Gaussian sigma (width) equals 2.08A?A+-0.12A?A+-0.13 GeV/c. This width is consistent with PYTHIA, kT literature surveys, and other RHIC measurements. A limit on nuclear kT broadening in the Au nucleus is also obtained, showing that nuclear kT is consistent with zero to within 0.5 GeV/c. The present status of the RdAu measurement from jets is also described. The nuclear kT broadening, in particular, is a measurement which has been done at this energy for the first time at RHIC. These measurements, while interesting by themselves, also will contribute ultimately to the understanding of Au+Au collisions at RHIC, and the properties of the high-density matter which results from them.
