Pion, Kaon, and Proton Production in Jet-Hadron Correlations from Pb-Pb Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=5.02 TeV Using the ALICE Detector

Interactions between hard probes and the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) are a rich probe of the dynamics of the QGP. In this thesis, we study the production of pions, kaons and protons from jet-hadron correlations in 0-10% and 30-50% central Pb-Pb collisions at √s_NN = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. We focus our studies on low momentum jets with 20 GeV/c < p_T^jet < 40 GeV/c using associated hadrons with 1 GeV/c < p_T^assoc. < 10 GeV/c. The yields of associate pions, kaons and protons were measured in the near-side and away-side regions of the jet-hadron correlation function, and the baryon to meson and strange to non-strange meson ratios were computed. This is the first measurement of the strange to non-strange meson ratio for hadrons associated with a jet. We find the baryon to meson ratio for associated hadrons in Pb-Pb collisions to be within uncertainty of the ratio for inclusive charged hadrons in proton-proton collisions. The strange to non-strange meson ratio for associated hadrons in Pb-Pb collisions shows strong enhancement at intermediate p_T^assoc. relative to the ratio for inclusive charged hadrons in proton-proton collisions, with a hint of enhancement over the ratio for inclusive charged hadrons in Pb-Pb collisions. We find that the enhancement is larger for hadrons associated with the away-side region relative to those associated with the near-side region, and that the effect is larger for 0-10% central collisions than for 30-50% central collisions. These findings suggest that the strangeness enhancement of associated hadrons is driven by interactions between the jet and the medium, and may provide insight into the path-length dependence of jet-medium interactions in heavy-ion collisions. We hope that future comparisons to vi simulations and other measurements will provide further insight into this unexpected enhancement.