No Arabic abstract
The enhanced suppression of $J/psi$ production at large $x_F$ in $pA$ collisions is studied in the framework of gluon depletion at large $x_1$. The nonperturbative process that modifies the gluon distribution as the gluons propagate in nuclear matter is described by an evolution equation with a kernal to be determined by phenomenology. With nuclear shadowing and anti-shadowing taken into account, the effect on the gluon distribution is shown to be a depletion in excess of 40% at $x_1 approx 0.8$ for $A > 100$. There is a small amount of enhancement of the gluon distribution at small $x_1$, but it does not lead to any contradiction with the existing data on $J/psi$ suppression in the central region. Extentions to $psi^{prime}$ suppression and $AB$ collisions are also investigated in the framework of gluon redistribution.
Photoproduction of heavy quarks and exclusive production of vector mesons in ultraperipheral proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions depend significantly on nuclear gluon distributions. In the present study we investigate quantitatively the extent of the applicability of these processes at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in constraining the shadowing component of nuclear gluon modifications.
Using the CGC formalism, we calculate the two-gluon rapidity correlations of strong colour fields in $pp$, $pA$ and $AA$ collisions, respectively. If one trigger gluon is fixed at central rapidity, a ridge-like correlation pattern is obtained in symmetry $pp$ and $AA$ collisions, and a huge bump-like correlation pattern is presented in asymmetry $pA$ collisions. It is demonstrated that the ridge-like correlation patterns are caused by the stronger correlation with the gluon of colour source. The transverse momentum and incident energy dependence of the ridge-like correlation pattern is also systematically studied. The ridge is more likely observed at higher incident energy and lower transverse momentum of trigger gluon.
We compare the flow-like correlations in high multiplicity proton-nucleus ($p+A$) and nucleus-nucleus ($A+A$) collisions. At fixed multiplicity, the correlations in these two colliding systems are strikingly similar, although the system size is smaller in $p+A$. Based on an independent cluster model and a simple conformal scaling argument, where the ratio of the mean free path to the system size stays constant at fixed multiplicity, we argue that flow in $p+A$ emerges as a collective response to the fluctuations in the position of clusters, just like in $A+A$ collisions. With several physically motivated and parameter free rescalings of the recent LHC data, we show that this simple model captures the essential physics of elliptic and triangular flow in $p+A$ collisions. We also explore the implications of the model for jet energy loss in $p+A$, and predict slightly larger transverse momentum broadening in $p+A$ than in $A+A$ at the same multiplicity.
Measurements of the suppression of the yield per nucleon of J/Psi and Psi production for 800 GeV/c protons incident on heavy relative to light nuclear targets have been made with very broad coverage in xF and pT. The observed suppression is smallest at xF values of 0.25 and below and increases at larger values of xF. It is also strongest at small pT. Substantial differences between the Psi and J/Psi are observed for the first time in p-A collisions. The suppression for the Psi is stronger than that for the J/Psi for xF near zero, but becomes comparable to that for the J/Psi for xF > 0.6.
We point out that data on the onset of anomalous J/psi suppression as a function of nucleon numbers A and B could provide information on the dynamics of nuclear interactions. In particular the models of anomalous J/psi suppression by Blaizot and Ollitrault (BO) and by Kharzeev, Lourenco, Nardi and Satz (KLNS) are based on different assumptions on the dynamics of nuclear collisions and lead to different predictions of the dependence of the onset of anomalous J/psi suppression on nucleon numbers of colliding nuclei. The data on this onset as function of A and B could become a tool for the study of the dynamics of nuclear collisions and bring further evidence on J/psi suppression by new form of hadronic matter, possibly Quark-Gluon Plasma. In particular we propose to study J/psi suppression in A+Pb interaction with nucleon number of A between 58 and 73 or a bit higher.