High-p_T Tomography of d+Au and Au+Au at SPS, RHIC, and LHC

Abstract

The interplay of nuclear effects on the p_T > 2 GeV inclusive hadron spectra in d+Au and Au+Au reactions at root(s) = 17, 200, 5500 GeV is compared to leading order perturbative QCD calculations for elementary p+p (p-bar+p) collisions. The competition between nuclear shadowing, Cronin effect, and jet energy loss due to medium-induced gluon radiation is predicted to lead to a striking energy dependence of the nuclear suppression/enhancement pattern in A+A reactions. We show that future d+Au data can used to disentangle the initial and final state effects.

Comments: Final version to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. Preliminary PHENIX and STAR data included in Fig. 3. Pages - 4, figures - 3. Uses bbox.sty