A Jet Shape Study with the STAR Experiment

In relativistic heavy ion physics, jets are a collection of particles that are emitted from hard scattered partons. They are known to interact strongly within quark-gluon plasma (QGP) produced in heavy ion collisions, which is known as jet quenching. It has been observed at the LHC that jets' energy deposition and radiation patterns change when they interact with QGP compared to their vacuum baseline. Jet shape is an observable that is sensitive to the changes within a jet and its lateral energy distribution. In this study, we utilize data collected by the STAR experiment at RHIC to compare the evolution of the jet shape observable in proton+proton and $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200$ GeV Au+Au collisions. Such measurements allow us to have a better understanding of the jet quenching phenomenon in heavy ion collisions at RHIC.