Systematics of parton-medium interaction from RHIC to LHC

Despite a wealth of experimental data for high-P_T processes in heavy-ion collisions, discriminating between different models of hard parton-medium interactions has been difficult. A key reason is that the pQCD parton spectrum at RHIC is falling so steeply that distinguishing even a moderate shift in parton energy from complete parton absorption is essentially impossible. In essence, energy loss models are effectively only probed in the vicinity of zero energy loss and, as a result, at RHIC energies only the pathlength dependence of energy loss offers some discriminating power. At LHC however, this is no longer the case: Due to the much flatter shape of the parton p_T spectra originating from 2.76 AGeV collisions, the available data probe much deeper into the model dynamics. A simultaneous fit of the nuclear suppression at both RHIC and LHC energies thus has great potential for discriminating between various models that yield equally good descriptions of RHIC data alone.Comment: Talk given at Quark Matter 2011, 22-28 May 2011, Annecy, Franc

Particle Production at Large Transverse Momentum with ALICE

We present transverse momentum distributions of inclusive charged particles and identified hadrons in $pp$ and Pb--Pb collisions at \rs= 2.76 TeV, measured by ALICE at the LHC. The Pb--Pb data are presented in intervals of collision centrality and cover transverse momenta up to 50 GeV/$c$. Nuclear medium effects are studied in terms of the nuclear modification factor \raa. The results indicate a strong suppression of high-$p_T$ particles in Pb--Pb collisions, consistent with a large energy loss of hard-scattered partons in the hot, dense and long-lived medium created at the LHC. We compare the preliminary results for inclusive charged particles to previous results from RHIC and calculations from energy loss models. Furthermore, we compare the nuclear modification factors of inclusive charged particles to those of identified $\pi^0$, $\pi^{\pm}$, K$^0_s$, and $\Lambda$.Comment: Talk given at Quark Matter 2011 conferenc