Simple Scaling Laws for Energy Correlators in Nuclear Matter

Area of Science:

• High-energy nuclear physics
• Quantum field theory
• Particle physics

Background:

• Collider experiments probe exotic nuclear matter.
• Energy correlators show modifications in proton-nucleus (p-A) and nucleus-nucleus (A-A) collisions compared to proton-proton (p-p) collisions.
• Nuclear effects alter particle interactions and energy distributions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate how the light-ray operator product expansion (OPE) maps energy correlator scaling behaviors to quantum field theory properties in nuclear collisions.
• To characterize leading nuclear effects using the light-ray OPE.
• To provide a theoretical framework for understanding nuclear modifications to energy correlator observables.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing the light-ray operator product expansion (OPE) framework.
• Analyzing energy correlator measurements from p-A and A-A collisions.
• Mapping scaling behaviors of energy correlators to quantum field theory properties.

Main Results:

• The leading modification in energy correlator distributions is an enhancement of twist-4 light-ray operators.
• This results in a scaling of the two-point correlator ratio (nuclear matter to vacuum) of approximately 1+aθ².
• The twist-4 correction accurately describes recent A-A and p-A data for typical jet radii.

Conclusions:

• The light-ray OPE successfully characterizes leading nuclear effects on energy correlators.
• The developed approach provides a rigorous method for analyzing nuclear modifications in collider experiments.
• This work lays the foundation for future studies on nuclear matter properties through energy correlator observables.