Forward particle production in proton-nucleus collisions at next-to-leading order

We consider the next-to-leading order (NLO) calculation of single inclusive particle production at forward rapidities in proton-nucleus collisions and in the framework of the Color Glass Condensate (CGC). We focus on the quark channel and the corrections associated with the impact factor. In the first step of the evolution the kinematics of the emitted gluon is kept exactly (and not in the eikonal approximation), but such a treatment which includes NLO corrections is not explicitly separated from the high energy evolution. Thus, in this newly established "factorization scheme", there is no "rapidity subtraction". The latter suffers from fine tuning issues and eventually leads to an unphysical (negative) cross section. On the contrary, our reorganization of the perturbation theory leads by definition to a well-defined cross section and the numerical evaluation of the NLO correction is shown to have the correct size.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, based on talk given at QCD@Work, 25-28 June 2018, Matera, Ital

Multi-gluon correlations in the Color Glass Condensate

The Color Glass Condensate is a universal state of matter which can manifest itself in hadronic processes involving small-x partons, like DIS and pp, pA and AA collisions at high energy. Observables are given in terms of multi-gluon correlators, whose ensemble evolves according to a RG equation, the JIMWLK equation. We focus on recent progress towards its solution which lead to quasi-exact, analytic expressions for the multi-gluon correlators at high energy.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, based on talk given at Hard Probes 2012, 27 May - 1 Jun 2012, Cagliari, Ital

JIMWLK evolution for multi-particle production with rapidity correlations

We study multi-particle production with rapidity correlations in proton-nucleus collisions at high energy in the Color Glass Condensate framework. The high-energy evolution responsible for such correlations is governed by a generalization of the JIMWLK equation describing the simultaneous evolution of the strong nuclear color fields in the direct amplitude and the complex conjugate amplitude. This functional equation can be used to derive ordinary evolution equations for the cross-sections for particle production, but the ensuing equations appear to be too complicated to be useful in practice, including in the limit of a large number of colors Nc. We propose an alternative formulation based on a Langevin process, which is valid for generic Nc and is better suited for numerical implementations. For illustration, we present the stochastic equations which govern two gluon production with arbitrary rapidity separation.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, based on talk given at IS 2013, 8 - 14 Sep 2013, Illa da Toxa, Spai

JIMWLK evolution: from color charges to rapidity correlations

We study multi-particle production with rapidity correlations in high-energy p+A collisions. In the context of the Color Glass Condensate, the evolution for such correlations is governed by a generalization of the JIMWLK equation which evolves the strong nuclear fields both in the amplitude and in the complex conjugate one. We give the equivalent Langevin formulation, whose main ingredient is the color charge density linked to a projectile parton (a Wilson line).Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, based on talk given at Hard Probes 2013, 4 - 8 Nov 2013, Cape Town, South Afric

Running coupling effects in the evolution of jet quenching

We study the consequences of including the running of the QCD coupling in the equation describing the evolution of the jet quenching parameter $\hat q$ in the double logarithmic approximation. To start with, we revisit the case of a fixed coupling, for which we obtain exact solutions valid for generic values of the transverse momentum (above the medium saturation scale) and corresponding to various initial conditions. In the case of a running coupling, we construct approximate solutions in the form of truncated series obtained via successive iterations, whose convergence is well under control. We thus deduce the dominant asymptotic behavior of the renormalized $\hat q$ in the limit of a large evolution time $Y\equiv\ln(L/\lambda)$, with $L$ the size of the medium and $\lambda$ the typical wavelength of a medium constituent. We show that the asymptotic expansion is universal with respect to the choice of the initial condition at $Y=0$ and, moreover, it is remarkably similar to the corresponding expansion for the saturation momentum of a shockwave (a large nucleus). As expected, the running of the coupling significantly slows down the increase of $\hat q$ with $Y$ in the asymptotic regime at $Y\gg 1$. For the phenomenologically interesting value $Y\simeq 3$, we find an enhancement factor close to 3, independently of the initial condition and for both fixed and running coupling.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure

JIMWLK evolution for multi-particle production in Langevin form

Within the effective theory for the Color Glass Condensate, we study multi-particle production with rapidity correlations in proton-nucleus collisions at high energy. The high-energy evolution responsible for such correlations is governed by a generalization of the JIMWLK equation which describes the simultaneous evolution of the (strong) nuclear color fields in the direct amplitude and the complex conjugate amplitude. This functional equation can be used to derive ordinary evolution equations for the cross-sections for particle production (a generalization of the Balitsky hierarchy). However, the ensuing equations appear to be too complicated to be useful in practice, including in the limit where the number of colors is large. To circumvent this problem, we propose an alternative formulation of the high-energy evolution as a Langevin process, which is better suited for numerical implementations. This process is directly oriented towards the calculation of the cross-sections, so its detailed structure depends upon the nature of the final state. We present the stochastic equations appropriate for two gluon production, and also for three gluon production, with generic rapidity differences.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figure

Forward and Mueller-Navelet Jets

We discuss the production of forward jets in high energy processes where one probes a dense hadronic wavefunction. In particular, and as a signature of parton saturation, we discuss the possibility of a strong momentum decorrelation in Mueller-Navelet jets which leads to a geometric scaling behavior.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the proceedings of Excited QCD 2011, 20-25 Feb 2011, Les Houches, Franc

Testing the Gaussian Approximation to the JIMWLK Equation

In processes involving small-x partons, like in deep inelastic scattering and in hadronic collisions at high energy, the final state can be expressed in terms of correlators of Wilson lines. We study such high-point correlators evolving according to the JIMWLK equation and we confirm the results of previous numerical and analytic work, by using an independent method, that the solution to the JIMWLK equation can be very well approximated by an appropriate Gaussian wavefunction. We explore both fixed and running coupling evolution, where in the latter the scale is set according to various prescriptions. As a byproduct, we also numerically confirm to high accuracy the validity of the law governing the behavior of the S-matrix close to the unitarity limit, the Levin-Tuchin formula. We furthermore outline how to calculate correlators with open color indices.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures. v2: minor corrections, one equation added, updated to match published versio