Jet physics in heavy-ion collisions

Jets are expected to play a prominent role in the ongoing efforts to characterize the hot and dense QCD medium created in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. The success of this program depends crucially on the existence of a full theoretical account of the dynamical effects of the medium on the jets that develop within it. By focussing on the discussion of the essential ingredients underlying such a theoretical formulation, we aim to set the appropriate context in which current and future developments can be understood.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures, few minor corrections, references added. Final version published in IJMP

Medium-induced color flow softens hadronization

Medium-induced parton energy loss, resulting from gluon exchanges between the QCD matter and partonic projectiles, is expected to underly the strong suppression of jets and high-$p_T$ hadron spectra observed in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. Here, we present the first color-differential calculation of parton energy loss. We find that color exchange between medium and projectile enhances the invariant mass of energetic color singlet clusters in the parton shower by a parametrically large factor proportional to the square root of the projectile energy. This effect is seen in more than half of the most energetic color-singlet fragments of medium-modified parton branchings. Applying a standard cluster hadronization model, we find that it leads to a characteristic additional softening of hadronic spectra. A fair description of the nuclear modification factor measured at the LHC may then be obtained for relatively low momentum transfers from the medium

Rapidity and energy dependence of average transverse momentum and particle density in saturation models

Saturation models -- colour glass condensate and string percolation -- impose a strict relation between the average transverse momentum, , and the rapidity particle densities, dn/dy. By combining this relation with an appropriate evolution equation for dn/dy, and imposing energy-momentum conservation, we obtain a fair description of data, for generic AB collisions (hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus) at all rapidities and (high) energies. Predictions are given for the LHC.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Forward-Backward rapidity correlations at all rapidities

We discuss forward-bacward rapidity correlations in the general situation of asymmetrical collisions, asymmetric rapidity windows, higher rapidities and higher energy. We give predictions for RHIC and LHC.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

On correlations and discreteness in non-linear QCD evolution

We consider modifications of the standard non-linear QCD evolution in an attempt to account for some of the missing ingredients discussed recently, such as correlations, discreteness in gluon emission and Pomeron loops. The evolution is numerically performed using the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation on individual configurations defined by a given initial value of the saturation scale, for reduced rapidities $y=(\alpha_s N_c/\pi) Y<10$. We consider the effects of averaging over configurations as a way to implement correlations, using three types of Gaussian averaging around a mean saturation scale. Further, we heuristically mimic discreteness in gluon emission by considering a modified evolution in which the tails of the gluon distributions are cut-off. The approach to scaling and the behavior of the saturation scale with rapidity in these modified evolutions are studied and compared with the standard mean-field results. For the large but finite values of rapidity explored, no strong quantitative difference in scaling for transverse momenta around the saturation scale is observed. At larger transverse momenta, the influence of the modifications in the evolution seems most noticeable in the first steps of the evolution. No influence on the rapidity behavior of the saturation scale due to the averaging procedure is found. In the cut-off evolution the rapidity evolution of the saturation scale is slowed down and strongly depends on the value of the cut-off. Our results stress the need to go beyond simple modifications of evolution by developing proper theoretical tools that implement such recently discussed ingredients.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX, 18 eps figures included using epsfig; changes in v3: new kind of averaging added, 5 new plots, discussions and conclusions extended, final versio

Nuclear size and rapidity dependence of the saturation scale from QCD evolution and experimental data

The solutions of the Balitsky-Kovchegov evolution equations are studied numerically and compared with known analytical estimations. The rapidity and nuclear size dependences of the saturation scale are obtained for the cases of fixed and running coupling constant. These same dependences are studied in experimental data, on lepton-nucleus, deuteron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions, through geometric scaling and compared with the theoretical calculations.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. Contribution based on talks given by J. G. Milhano and C. A. Salgado to the proceedings of ``Hard Probes 2004'', Ericeira (Portugal), November 4-10, 200