Delineating the saturation boundary: linear vs non-linear QCD evolution from HERA data to LHC phenomenology

The forthcoming p+Pb run at the LHC will provide crucial in formation on the initial state effects of heavy ion collisions and on the gluon saturation phenomena. In turn, most of the saturation inspired phenomenology in heavy ion collisions borrows substantial empiric information from the analysis of e+p data, where abundant high quality data on the small-x kinematic region is available. Indeed, the very precise combined HERA data provides a testing ground in which the relevance of novel QCD regimes, other than the successful linear DGLAP evolution, in small-x inclusive DIS data can be ascertained. We present a study of the dependence of the AAMQS fits, based on the running coupling BK non-linear evolution equations (rcBK), on the fitted dataset. This allows for the identification of the kinematical region where rcBK accurately describes the data, and thus for the determination of its applicability boundary. It also set important constraints to the saturation models used to model the early stages of heavy ion collisions. Finally we compare the rcBK results with NNLO DGLAP fits, obtained with the NNPDF methodology with analogous kinematical cuts. Further, we explore the impact on LHC phenomenology of applying stringent kinematical cuts to the low-x HERA data in a DGLAP fit.

AAMQS: a non-linear QCD description of new HERA data at small-x

We present a global analysis of available data on inclusive structure functions measured in electron-proton scattering at small values of Bjorken-x, including the latest data from the combined HERA analysis on reduced cross sections. Our approach relies on the dipole formulation of DIS together with the use of the non-linear running coupling BK equation for the description of the small-x dynamics. With the resulting parametrization we are able to describe the latest FL data measured by the H1 collaboration. Further, we discuss the kinematical domain where significant deviations from NLO-DGLAP should be expected and the ability of non-linnear physics to account for such deviations.

Testing factorization in pA collisions at the LHC

Global perturbative QCD analyses, based on large data sets from e-p and hadron collider experiments, provide tight constraints on the parton distribution function (PDF) in the proton. The extension of these analyses to nuclear parton distributions (nPDF) has attracted much interest in recent years. nPDFs are needed as benchmarks for the characterization of hot QCD matter in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and attract further interest since they may show novel signatures of non-linear density-dependent QCD evolution. However, it is not known from first principles whether the factorization of long-range phenomena into process-independent parton distribution, which underlies global PDF extractions for the proton, extends to nuclear effects. As a consequence, assessing the reliability of nPDFs for benchmark calculations goes beyond testing the numerical accuracy of their extraction and requires phenomenological tests of the factorization assumption. Here we argue that a proton-nucleus collision programme at the LHC, including a rapidity scan, would provide a set of measurements allowing for unprecedented tests of the factorization assumption underlying global nPDF fits.

Testing collinear factorization and nuclear parton distributions with pA collisions at the LHC

Global perturbative QCD analyses, based on large data sets from electron-proton and hadron collider experiments, provide tight constraints on the parton distribution function (PDF) in the proton. The extension of these analyses to nuclear parton distributions (nPDF) has attracted much interest in recent years. nPDFs are needed as benchmarks for the characterization of hot QCD matter in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and attract further interest since they may show novel signatures of non- linear density-dependent QCD evolution. However, it is not known from first principles whether the factorization of long-range phenomena into process-independent parton distribution, which underlies global PDF extractions for the proton, extends to nuclear effects. As a consequence, assessing the reliability of nPDFs for benchmark calculations goes beyond testing the numerical accuracy of their extraction and requires phenomenological tests of the factorization assumption. Here we argue that a proton-nucleus collision program at the LHC would provide a set of measurements allowing for unprecedented tests of the factorization assumption underlying global nPDF fits.