Photon-tagged correlations in heavy-ion collisions: kinematic requirements and a case study

Photon-tagged correlations may be useful to determine how the dense partonic medium produced in heavy-ion collisions affects the fragmentation of high-energy quarks and gluons into a leading hadron. In these proceedings, I discuss the kinematic requirements for the hadron and the prompt photon transverse momentum cuts. A case study at LHC energy, tagging on p_T > 20 GeV and p_T > 50 GeV photons, is then briefly examined.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (QM2006), Shanghai, China, 14-20 November 200

Quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions from coherent energy loss in cold nuclear matter

The effect of parton energy loss in cold nuclear matter on the suppression of quarkonia (J/psi, Upsilon) in heavy-ion collisions is investigated, by extrapolating a model based on coherent radiative energy loss recently shown to describe successfully J/psi and Upsilon suppression in proton-nucleus collisions. Model predictions in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC (Au-Au, Cu-Cu, and Cu-Au) and LHC (Pb-Pb) show a sizable suppression arising from the sole effect of energy loss in cold matter. This effect should thus be considered in order to get a reliable baseline for cold nuclear matter effects in quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions, in view of disentangling hot from cold nuclear effects.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure

Heavy-quarkonium suppression in p-A collisions from parton energy loss in cold QCD matter

The effects of parton energy loss in cold nuclear matter on heavy-quarkonium suppression in p-A collisions are studied. It is shown from first principles that at large quarkonium energy E and small production angle in the nucleus rest frame, the medium-induced energy loss scales as E. Using this result, a phenomenological model depending on a single free parameter is able to reproduce J/psi and Upsilon suppression data in a broad xF-range and at various center-of-mass energies. These results strongly support energy loss as the dominant effect in heavy-quarkonium suppression in p-A collisions. Predictions for J/psi and Upsilon suppression in p-Pb collisions at the LHC are made. It is argued that parton energy loss scaling as E should generally apply to hadron production in p-A collisions, such as light hadron or open charm production.Comment: 41 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables. v2: Model corrected at small and negative xF (section 3.1), conclusions unchange

Quarkonium suppression from coherent energy loss in fixed-target experiments using LHC beams

Quarkonium production in proton-nucleus collisions is a powerful tool to disentangle cold nuclear matter effects. A model based on coherent energy loss is able to explain the available quarkonium suppression data in a broad range of rapidities, from fixed-target to collider energies, suggesting cold energy loss to be the dominant effect in quarkonium suppression in p-A collisions. This could be further tested in a high-energy fixed-target experiment using a proton or nucleus beam. The nuclear modification factors of J/$\psi$ and $\Upsilon$ as a function of rapidity are computed in p-A collisions at $\sqrt{s}=114.6$ GeV, and in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=72$ GeV. These center-of-mass energies correspond to the collision on fixed-target nuclei of 7 TeV protons and 2.76 TeV lead nuclei available at the LHC.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Coherent medium-induced gluon radiation in hard forward 1→11\to 1 partonic processes

We revisit the medium-induced coherent radiation associated to hard and forward (small angle) scattering of an energetic parton through a nuclear medium. We consider all $1\to 1$ hard forward processes ($g \to g$, $q \to q$, $q \to g$ and $g \to q$), and derive the energy spectrum of induced coherent radiation rigorously to all orders in the opacity expansion and for the specific case of a Coulomb scattering potential. We obtain a simple general formula for the induced coherent spectrum, which encompasses the results corresponding to previously known special cases.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures; title changed, introduction developed and references added, detailed discussion added in Section VI, all results unchanged; version v2 corresponds to the published versio

J/psi suppression in p-A collisions from parton energy loss in cold QCD matter

The effects of energy loss in cold nuclear matter on J/psi suppression in p-A collisions are studied. A simple model based on first principles and depending on a single free parameter is able to reproduce J/psi suppression data at large xF and at various center-of-mass energies. These results strongly support energy loss as a dominant effect in quarkonium suppression. They also give some hint on its hadroproduction mechanism suggesting color neutralization to happen on long time-scales. Predictions for J/psi and Upsilon suppression in p-Pb collisions at the LHC are made.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Depletion of atmospheric neutrino fluxes from parton energy loss

The phenomenon of fully coherent energy loss (FCEL) in the collisions of protons on light ions affects the physics of cosmic ray air showers. As an illustration, we address two closely related observables: hadron production in forthcoming proton-oxygen collisions at the LHC, and the atmospheric neutrino fluxes induced by the semileptonic decays of hadrons produced in proton-air collisions. In both cases, a significant nuclear suppression due to FCEL is predicted. The conventional and prompt neutrino fluxes are suppressed by $\sim 10...25\%$ in their relevant neutrino energy ranges. Previous estimates of atmospheric neutrino fluxes should be scaled down accordingly to account for FCEL.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Higher-Twist Dynamics in Large Transverse Momentum Hadron Production

A scaling law analysis of the world data on inclusive large-pT hadron production in hadronic collisions is carried out. A significant deviation from leading-twist perturbative QCD predictions at next-to-leading order is reported. The observed discrepancy is largest at high values of xT=2pT/sqrt(s). In contrast, the production of prompt photons and jets exhibits the scaling behavior which is close to the conformal limit, in agreement with the leading-twist expectation. These results bring evidence for a non-negligible contribution of higher-twist processes in large-pT hadron production in hadronic collisions, where the hadron is produced directly in the hard subprocess rather than by gluon or quark jet fragmentation. Predictions for scaling exponents at RHIC and LHC are given, and it is suggested to trigger the isolated large-pT hadron production to enhance higher-twist processes.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Extended introduction, additional reference

Single inclusive pion pT-spectra in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 22.4GeV: data versus perturbative QCD calculations

We compare the inclusive transverse momentum spectra of single pions above pT = 3 GeV/c measured in proton-proton (p-p) collisions at sqrt(s) = 21.7 - 23.8 GeV, with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD (pQCD) predictions using recent parametrizations of the parton densities and parton-to-pion fragmentation functions. Although the dependence on the theoretical scales is large, the calculations can reproduce the experimental results both in magnitude and shape. Based on the existing data and on a pQCD $\sqrt{s}$-rescaling of the measured spectra, we provide a practical parametrization of the baseline p-p pion transverse momentum spectrum to be compared to nucleus-nucleus collisions data at sqrt(s_NN) = 22.4 GeV.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure