Energy Loss in Small Collision Systems

2023/07/17 by Coleridge Faraday, Faraday, Coleridge, W. A. Horowitz +1
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2307.08355

openalex publication_date 2023/07/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We present leading hadron suppression predictions in Pb+Pb and p+Pb collisions from a convolved radiative and collisional energy loss model in which partons propagate through a realistic background, and in which the radiative energy loss receives a short pathlength correction. We find that the short pathlength correction is small for D meson R_AA(p_T) in both Pb+Pb and p+Pb collisions. However the short pathlength correction leads to a surprisingly large reduction in suppression for π mesons in p+Pb and even Pb+Pb collisions, providing a qualitative explanation for the rapid rise in π meson R_AA(p_T) at the LHC. We find that the size of the short pathlength correction to R_AA(p_T) is acutely sensitive to the chosen distribution of scattering centers in the plasma. Furthermore we find that conventional elastic energy loss models, which apply the central limit theorem to the number of scatterings, dramatically overpredict suppression in p+A collisions, calling for short pathlength corrections to elastic energy loss.

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