What can we learn from dijets? A systematic study with VNI/BMS

Abstract

We present a systematic study of dijet suppression at RHIC using the VNI/BMS parton cascade code. We examine the medium modification of the dijet asymmetry $A_j$ and the energy distribution within the dijets. Understanding the sensitivity of these observables to properties of the deconfined medium and to experimental factors is vital if dijets are to be useful for QCD tomography. VNI/BMS provides a controllable test-bed with sufficient complexity to model jet modification without confounding results with fluctuations from hydrodynamics and hadronization. Dijets are examined under the modification of: the jet transport coefficient $\hat{q}$; the path length of leading and sub-leading jets; jet cone angle and the jet-medium interaction mechanism. We find that $A_j$ is very sensitive to the distance traveled by the secondary jet, the jet shape is dominated by $\hat{q}$ and the nature of the interaction mechanism.