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Nuclear suppression factor for P{sub T} increasing towards the kinematic limit

Journal Article · · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics
 [1]
  1. Department of Physics, P.O. Box 35 FI-40014, University of Jyvaeskylae (Finland) and Helsinki Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 64 FI-00014, University of Helsinki (Finland)

The suppression of high-transverse-momentum (P{sub T}) hadron production in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion (A-A) collisions as compared to the scaled expectation from proton-proton (p-p) collisions expressed as the nuclear modification factor R{sub AA} is experimentally well established and can be traced back to interactions between the hard parton shower and the soft bulk matter. Intuition suggests that the medium modification should cease to be important when the hard scale of parton production is much larger than the typical momentum scale in the medium (e.g., the temperature T) and that consequently R{sub AA}(P{sub T})->1 for P{sub T}>>T. However, R{sub AA} is not a 'simple' observable but rather results from many different mechanisms that influence what happens when P{sub T} increases. In particular, R{sub AA} does not necessarily approach unity even if the hadron momentum is probed at the kinematic limit of the reaction. The aim of this work is to identify and discuss such mechanisms, to present different model expectations of what one would find if one could measure suppression to the kinematic limit for hard hadron production, and to predict the P{sub T} dependence at both Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

OSTI ID:
21386560
Journal Information:
Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 81; ISSN 0556-2813; ISSN PRVCAN
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English