Identification of flow-background to subtract in jet-like azimuthal correlation

Abstract

We derive an analytical form for flow-background to jet-like azimuthal correlation in a cluster approach. We argue that the elliptic flow parameter to use in jet-correlation background is that from two-particle method excluding non-flow correlation unrelated to the reaction plane, but including cross-terms between cluster correlation and cluster flow. We verify our result with Monte Carlo simulations. We discuss implications of our finding in the context of jet-like correlations from STAR and PHENIX.