PHYSICAL REVIEW C, vol.110, no.4, 2024 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
High-momentum two-particle correlations are a useful tool for studying jet-quenching effects in the quarkgluon plasma. Angular correlations between neutral-pion triggers and charged hadrons with transverse momenta in the range 4-12 GeV/c and 0.5-7 GeV/c, respectively, have been measured by the PHENIX experiment in 2014 for Au + Au collisions at root sNN = 200 GeV. Suppression is observed in the yield of high-momentum jet fragments opposite the trigger particle, which indicates jet suppression stemming from in-medium partonic energy loss, while enhancement is observed for low-momentum particles. The ratio and differences between the yield in Au + Au collisions and p + p collisions, I-AA and Delta(AA), as a function of the trigger-hadron azimuthal separation, Delta phi, are measured for the first time at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These results better quantify how the yield of low-pT associated hadrons is enhanced at wide angle, which is crucial for studying energy loss as well as medium-response effects.