Photon-hadron and $\pi^0$-hadron azimuthal jet correlations in $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV Cu-Cu collisions at RHIC

Angular correlation of final-state particles provides an informative probe of the dense, hot matter produced in high-energy nuclear collisions. A brief description of the technique of angular pair correlations and their application to QCD jet analysis in heavy-ion collisions is presented in addition to preliminary results from $\gamma-h$ and $\pi^0-h$ azimuthal pair correlations from the PHENIX experiment at RHIC.