High p T hadron spectra in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We calculate the hadron spectra in high-energy pp, pA and AA collisions within a pQCD parton model. Analyses of experimental data show that the modification of the spectra in pA and AA as compared to that in pp collisions is consistent with multiple parton scattering scenario and is dictated by the transition from absorptive soft interaction at low p T to incoherent hard parton scattering at high p T . This analysis not only sheds new light on the limits to the physics analysis based on thermal fire-ball models but also provides a more quantitative baseline results on which one can study the effects of parton energy loss in the hadron spectra at high p T .