This Letter presents the first measurements of the groomed jet radius $R_\mathrm{g}$ and the jet girth $g$ in events with an isolated photon recoiling against a jet in lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions at the LHC at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The observables $R_\mathrm{g}$ and $g$ provide a quantitative measure of how narrow or broad a jet is. The analysis uses PbPb and pp data samples with integrated luminosities of 1.7 nb$^{-1}$ and 301 pb$^{-1}$, respectively, collected with the CMS experiment in 2018 and 2017. Events are required to have a photon with transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$$>$ 100 GeV and at least one jet back-to-back in azimuth with respect to the photon and with transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{jet}$ such that $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{jet} / p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$$>$ 0.4. The measured $R_\mathrm{g}$ and $g$ distributions are unfolded to the particle level, which facilitates the comparison between the PbPb and pp results and with theoretical predictions. It is found that jets with $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{jet} / p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$$>$ 0.8, i.e., those that closely balance the photon $p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$, are narrower in PbPb than in pp collisions. Relaxing the selection to include jets with $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{jet} / p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$$>$ 0.4 reduces the narrowing of the angular structure of jets in PbPb relative to the pp reference. This shows that selection bias effects associated with jet energy loss play an important role in the interpretation of jet substructure measurements.
Unfolded jet girth distribution in PbPb normalized to the number of jets that pass the $x_J$>0.4 selection. All systematic uncertainties are bin-to-bin fully correlated (allowing for sign-changes bin-to-bin).The covaraince matrices are provided for the statistical uncertainties from data and MC in this HepData record.
Covariance matrix of the statistical uncertainty in data for the unfolded jet girth distribution in PbPb for jets that pass the $x_J$>0.4 selection.The bin indices correspond to the bins used in the jet girth distribution.
Covariance matrix of the statistical uncertainty in MC for the unfolded jet girth distribution in PbPb for jets that pass the $x_J$>0.4 selection.The bin indices correspond to the bins used in the jet girth distribution.