After a short summary of the predictions of the Parton Quenching Model (PQM) for the nuclear modification factor and its centrality dependence in Au-Au collisions at RHIC, we concentrate on back-to-back jet-like correlations at high transverse momentum. We illustrate how this probe is biased by the surface effect.
We present an universal treatment for a substantial nuclear suppression representing a common feature of all known reactions on nuclear targets (forward production of high-pT hadrons, production of direct photons, the Drell-Yan process, heavy flavor production, etc.). Such a suppression at large Feynman xF, corresponding to region of minimal light-cone momentum fraction variable x2 in nuclei, is tempting to interpret as a manifestation of coherence or the Color Glass Condensate. We demonstrate, however, that it is actually a simple consequence of energy conservation and takes place even at low energies, where no effects of coherence are possible. We analyze this common suppression mechanism for several processes performing model predictions in the light-cone dipole approach. Our calculations agree with data.
Prompt photons produced in a hard reaction are not accompanied with any final state interaction, either energy loss or absorption. Therefore, besides the Cronin enhancement at medium transverse momenta pT and small isotopic corrections at larger pT, one should not expect any nuclear effects. However, data from PHENIX experiment exhibit a significant large-pT suppression in central d+Au and Au+Au collisions that cannot be accompanied by coherent phenomena. We demonstrate that such an unexpected result is subject to the energy sharing problem near the kinematic limit and is universally induced by multiple initial state interactions. We describe production of photons in the color dipole approach and find a good agreement with available data in p+p collisions. Besides explanation of large-pT nuclear suppression at RHIC we present for the first time predictions for expected nuclear effects also in the LHC energy range at different rapidities. We include and analyze also a contribution of gluon shadowing as a leading twist shadowing correction modifying nuclear effects at small and medium pT.
Particle number fluctuations and correlations in nucleus-nucleus collisions at SPS and RHIC energies are studied within the statistical hadron-resonance gas model in different statistical ensembles and in the Hadron-String-Dynamics (HSD) transport approach. Event-by-event fluctuations of the proton to pion and kaon to proton number ratios are calculated in the HSD model for the samples of most central collision events and compared with the available experimental data. The role of the experimental acceptance and centrality selection is discussed.
Preliminary estimates suggest that excess dimuon production with invariant mass in the range 1.5 -- 2.5 GeV in nucleus-nucleus collisions can be explained on the basis of $eta_c$ production. This appears to be consistent with all the peripheral and central collision data with various nuclei such as S-U at 200 GeV/nucleon except for the central collision data on Pb-Pb at 158 GeV/nucleon. Some explanations based on glueball production for Pb-Pb data are discussed.
We make a theoretical and experimental summary of the state-of-the-art status of hot and dense QCD matter studies on selected topics. We review the Beam Energy Scan program for the QCD phase diagram and present the current status of search for QCD Critical Point, particle production in high baryon density region, hypernuclei production, and global polarization effects in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The available experimental data in the strangeness sector suggests that a grand canonical approach in thermal model at high collision energy makes a transition to the canonical ensemble behavior at low energy. We further discuss future prospects of nuclear collisions to probe properties of baryon-rich matter. Creation of a quark-gluon plasma at high temperature and low baryon density has been called the Little-Bang and, analogously, a femtometer-scale explosion of baryon-rich matter at lower collision energy could be called the Femto-Nova, which may possibly sustain substantial vorticity and magnetic field for non-head-on collisions.