Discrimination of Light Quark and Gluon Jets in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV with the ATLAS Detector

This note presents a study of the discrimination between jets arising from light flavor quarks and gluons using data from $\sqrt{s} = 8 $TeV proton-proton collisions taken with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Templates of light-quark and gluon jet properties are derived and compared with predictions from Monte Carlo generators and high purity quark and gluon jet samples. The power of a variety of discriminants derived from data is studied and systematic uncertainties on their performance are assessed. Particular emphasis is placed on the dependence of the discrimination performance for different event samples. Rejections of 40-50 % of jets initiated from gluons are achieved for 70 % light quark jet acceptance.