Nuclear Theory/RIKEN Seminar

Effective field theory (EFT) is a powerful framework based on exploiting symmetries and controlled expansions for problems with a natural separation of energy or distance scales. EFTs are particularly important in QCD and nuclear physics. An effective theory of QCD, ideally suited to jet applications, is Soft-Collinear Effective Theory (SCET). Recently, first steps were taken to extend SCET and describe jet evolution in strongly-interacting matter. In this talk I will demonstrate that the newly constructed theory, called SCETG, allows us to go beyond the traditional energy loss approximation in heavy ion collisions and unify the treatment of vacuum and medium-induced parton showers. It provides quantitative control over the uncertainties associated with the implementation of the in-medim modification of hadron production cross sections and allows us to accurately constrain the coupling between the jet and the medium. I will further show how SCET and SCETG can be implemented to evaluate reconstructed jet observables, such as jet shapes.