Jet Quenching in the Compact Muon Solenoid at the LHC

In this thesis we perform analyses on simulated data that allow us to demonstrate thesensitivity of the CMS experiment to certain jet quenching observables. In particular,two theoretical scenarios which mimic RHIC data at low pT and which show eitherno quenching or BDMPS-based quenching at high pT are formulated. The differencebetween these two scenarios is analyzed for RAA , RCP at different centralities andjet-specific observables such as jet energy spectra, fragmentation functions and jetprofiles. We show how these analyses indicate that the large acceptance of the CMSdetector, combined with the high granularity in the energy resolution of the calorimeter will be essential tools in studying the phenomenon of jet quenching. Finally, wepropose extensions to this work in preparation to analyzing the data from P b-P b runsat the LHC.Disclaimer: The work on this thesis does not model the CMS detector geometrywith the accuracy required for official analyses, which are fully representative of theCMS detector capabilities. Such analyses require of the full CMS simulation machinery and are left to the CMS Heavy Ion group as a whole.This document was submitted as an Undergraduate Thesis to the MIT Physics Department in June 2005.