Search for Jet Quenching in Pb-Pb collisions at s_NN = 2.76 TeV

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to further investigate the state of matter known as Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) that is produced in heavy ion collisions. This is done by analyzing jets and jet quenching in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt[]{s_\textrm{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV from ALICE. The events are discriminated by setting a 8 GeV/$c$ $p_\textrm{T}$ threshold on the trigger particle. This ensures that there is hard scattering inside the collision. The jet quenching is hypothesized to occur in central collisions (0-5\% centrality), whereas peripheral collisions (60-80\% centrality) are used in order to form a good baseline. Projections are drawn from every track unto the trigger particle, in order to measure the relative $p_\textrm{T}$ intensity for each collision. The results from the analysis conclude that there are significant anomalies of low-$p_\textrm{T}$ tracks in the 0-5\% data compared to the baseline. This is likely correlated to soft gluon emission due to jet quenching.