Centrality-dependent modification of hadron and jet production in electron-nucleus collisions

Abstract

Centrality-dependent measurements of hadron and jet cross section attenuation in deep inelastic scattering on nuclei can shed new light on the physics of final-state interactions in nuclear matter, including the path-length dependence of the in-medium parton shower formation and evolution. Recent simulation studies have demonstrated the feasibility of experimental centrality determination in eA reactions at the electron-ion collider via neutron detection in the zero-degree calorimeter. Motivated by these results, we present the first theoretical calculation of the production rate modification for hadrons and jets in central and peripheral ePb collisions. We find that the variation in the suppression of inclusive jet cross section as a function of centrality is less than a factor of two. In more differential measurements, such as the distribution of hadrons versus the hadronization fraction zh, the difference can be enhanced up to an order of magnitude.