Heavy ions and parton saturation from RHIC to LHC

Abstract

The phenomenology of gluon saturation at small parton momentum fraction, Bjorken-x, in the proton and in the nucleus is introduced. The experimentally-accessible kinematic domains at the nucleus-nucleus colliders RHIC and LHC are discussed. Finally, the saturation hints emerging from measurements at RHIC and the perspectives for LHC are described.

Comments: 6 pages, 4 figures, prepared for the proceedings of ISMD 08