Flavor Hierarchy of Jet Energy Correlators inside the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Heavy flavor jets provide ideal tools to probe the mass effect on jet substructure in both vacuum and quark-gluon plasma. An energy-energy correlator (EEC) is an excellent jet substructure observable owning to its strong sensitivity to jet physics at different scales. We perform a complete realistic simulation on medium modification of heavy and light flavor jet EECs in heavy-ion collisions. A clear flavor hierarchy is observed for jet EECs in both vacuum and quark-gluon plasma due to the mass effect. The medium modification of inclusive jet EECs at different angular scales exhibits a very rich structure: suppression at intermediate angles, and enhancement at small and large angles, which can be well explained by the interplay of mass effect, energy loss, medium-induced radiation, and medium response. These unique features of jet EECs are shown to probe the physics of jet-medium interaction at different scales, and can be readily validated by upcoming experiments. Published by the American Physical Society 2025