Medium modifications of heavy-flavor jet angularities in high-energy nuclear collisions

We present the first theoretical study of heavy-flavor jet angularities ($\lambda_{\kappa}^{\alpha}$) in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=$ 5.02 TeV. The initial production of heavy-flavor jets is carried out using the POWHEG+PYTHIA8 prescription, while the jet evolution in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is described by the SHELL transport model. In p+p collisions, we observe narrower angularity distributions for the D$^0$-tagged jets compared to inclusive jets, consistent with the ALICE preliminary results. We then demonstrate that jet quenching in the QGP may slightly widen the angularity distributions of both inclusive and D$^0$-tagged jets in Pb+Pb collisions relative to p+p at $10< p_{\rm T,jet} < 20$ GeV/c. Additionally, by comparing the averaged angularities $\langle \lambda^{\kappa}_{\alpha} \rangle$ of inclusive, D$^0$-tagged and B$^0$-tagged jets with varying $\alpha$ and $\kappa$, we show that the larger the quark mass is, the lower the jet's $\langle \lambda^{\kappa}_{\alpha} \rangle$ values are. As a result of the slenderer initial distribution, we predict that as compared to inclusive jets, the heavy-flavor jets, especially the B$^0$-tagged one, will suffer more distinct modifications of $\langle \lambda^{\kappa}_{\alpha} \rangle$ in Pb+Pb relative to p+p at $10 < p_{\rm T,jet} < 20$ GeV/c. For a larger jet radius, a more significant broadening of jet angularities could be obtained because of the enhanced contributions of the wide-angle particles. It is also noted that the angularity distributions of inclusive and D$^0$-tagged jets become narrower in Pb+Pb collisions relative to p+p at $p_{\rm T,jet} > 20$ GeV/c due to the strong influence of the selection bias.
Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures