Direct Jet Reconstruction in Proton–Proton and Copper–Copper at √sNN = 200 GeV

This thesis develops an algorithm that reconstructs the jets as maxima of the Gaussian filtered event transverse momentum distribution. This algorithm is used to obtain the first jet measurement in heavy ion environment at PHENIX, using data from the 2004/2005 RHIC run. The measurement reports the proton–proton inclusive jet spectrum, the proton–proton fragmentation function, the copper–copper jet nuclear modification factor, the copper–copper jet central-to-peripheral modification factor, and the copper–copper dijet azimuthal correlation. ˆThis thesis is therefore most likely the first that studies the jet quenching in heavy ion colliders using jet reconstruction.