Evidence of b-Jet Quenching in PbPb Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV

The production of jets associated to bottom quarks is measured for the first time in PbPb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per nucleon pair. Jet spectra are reported in the transverse momentum (pT) range of 80–250  GeV/c, and within pseudorapidity |η|<2. The nuclear modification factor (RAA) calculated from these spectra shows a strong suppression in the b-jet yield in PbPb collisions relative to the yield observed in pp collisions at the same energy. The suppression persists to the largest values of pT studied, and is centrality dependent. The RAA is about 0.4 in the most central events, similar to previous observations for inclusive jets. This implies that jet quenching does not have a strong dependence on parton mass and flavor in the jet pT range studied.