{
  "abstract": "We present predictions for the collinear energy-energy correlator (EEC) measured inside $Z$-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions across the confinement transition. Our framework combines transverse-momentum-dependent factorization for back-to-back $Z+$jet production with an exclusive differential EEC jet function incorporating perturbative evolution and flavor-dependent non-perturbative fragmentation. The EEC jet function is evaluated at $\\mathrm{NLL}^{\\prime}$ accuracy, with separate quark and gluon non-perturbative scales constrained by existing $e^+e^-$ and inclusive-jet data. We provide predictions for forward $Z+$jet production at $\\sqrt{s}=8~\\mathrm{TeV}$ and $13~\\mathrm{TeV}$ in the jet transverse-momentum intervals $(20, 30)$, $(30, 50)$ and $(50, 100) \\, \\mathrm{GeV}$. The EEC distributions as functions of $z_χ$ exhibit finite plateaus at small $z_χ$, while the corresponding angular distributions display the characteristic turnover associated with the confinement transition. A flavor decomposition shows that this transition becomes increasingly dominated by quark-initiated jets as the jet transverse momentum increases. Forward $Z$-tagged jets therefore provide a clean probe of non-perturbative quark fragmentation and offer a direct test of whether the characteristic confinement scale extracted from $e^+e^-$ collisions remains universal in a hadronic environment.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.03072",
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "João Barata"
    },
    {
      "name": "Zhong-Bo Kang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xoán Mayo López"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jani Penttala"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yiyu Zhou"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ed8awa8rsbk62.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.03072",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "ed8awa8rsbk62",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03072",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ex"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7208742199",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.03072",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-02",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ed8awa8rsbk62.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:31Z",
      "native_id": "2609.03072",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03072"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-ex",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Energy-Energy Correlators in $Z$-Tagged Jets in $pp$ Collisions",
  "title_text": "Energy-Energy Correlators in Z-Tagged Jets in pp Collisions",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:31Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ed8awa8rsbk62",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}