Quark and gluon jet substructure

Distinguishing quark-initiated jets from gluon-initiated jets has the potential to significantly improve the reach of many beyond-the-standard model searches at the Large Hadron Collider and to provide additional tests of QCD. To explore whether quark and gluon jets could possibly be distinguished on an event-by-event basis, we perform a comprehensive simulation-based study. We explore a variety of motivated and unmotivated variables with a semi-automated multivariate approach. General conclusions are that at 50% quark jet acceptance efficiency, around 80%-90% of gluon jets can be rejected. Some benefit is gained by combining variables. Different event generators are compared, as are the effects of using only charged tracks to avoid pileup. Additional information, including interactive distributions of most variables and their cut efficiencies, can be found at http://jets.physics.harvard.edu/qvg.