Hunting QGP across system-size landscape: Jet quenching in O+O with sPHENIX

by Jaebeom Park

Tuesday 4 Aug 2026, 11:00 → 13:00 US/Eastern

Jet quenching, the suppression and modification of high-energy jets traversing the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), is a defining signature of heavy-ion collisions. Whether this phenomenon survives in small collision systems remains one of the central open questions in the field. Oxygen collisions provide a decisive test ground, filling the gap in system size between p+p and heavy-ion collisions with a controlled collision geometry.

In this talk, I present the first measurements of jet production in O+O collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV with the sPHENIX detector. Using high-statistics data, we report for the first time the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm AA}$ and the central-to-peripheral ratio $R_{\rm CP}$ for inclusive jets in O+O collisions. A clear centrality hierarchy has been found on the two observables showing the jet yields are suppressed towards central collisions, a pattern consistent with final-state energy loss. I will place these results in the context of energy loss, examine the dependence on no-quenching nPDF baselines, and discuss what jet measurements across the system-size landscape can tell us about the minimal conditions for QGP formation.

Recording available: Recording URL

Passcode: 8%d+FRBH

BNL_NP_Seminar_2026.pdf