2018/02/16 by Adrian Dumitru, Gary Kapilevich, Vladimir V. Skokov +1 · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Centrality #Gluon #Hadron #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Mathematics #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Projectile #Proton #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Quark–gluon plasma #Statistics #hep-ph #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2018.03.012
14 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2018/02/16 · openalex publication_date 2018/04/04 · arxiv updated 2018/05/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The nuclear modification factor RpA(pT) provides information on the small-x gluon distribution of a nucleus at hadron colliders. Several experiments have recently measured the nuclear modification factor not only in minimum bias but also for central pA collisions. In this paper we analyze the bias on the configurations of soft gluon fields introduced by a centrality selection via the number of hard particles. Such bias can be viewed as reweighting of configurations of small-x gluons. We find that the biased nuclear modification factor \cal QpA(pT) for central collisions is above RpA(pT) for minimum bias events, and that it may redevelop a "Cronin peak" even at small x. The magnitude of the peak is predicted to increase approximately like 1/A⊥ν, ν∼0.6±0.1, if one is able to select more compact configurations of the projectile proton where its gluons occupy a smaller transverse area A_⊥. We predict an enhanced \cal Qpp(pT)-1 ∼ 1/(pT2)ν and a Cronin peak even for central pp collisions.