Particle production in the Color Glass Condensate: from electron–proton DIS to proton–nucleus collisions

Abstract

We study single inclusive hadron production in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions in the CGC framework. The parameters in the calculation are obtained by fitting electron-proton deep inelastic scattering data. The obtained dipole-proton amplitude is generalized to dipole-nucleus scattering without any additional nuclear parameters other than the Woods-Saxon distribution. We show that it is possible to use an initial condition without an anomalous dimension and still obtain a good description of the HERA inclusive cross section and LHC single particle production measurements. We argue that one must consistently use the proton transverse area as measured by a high virtuality probe in DIS also for the single inclusive cross section in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions, and obtain a nuclear modification factor $R_{pA}$ that at midrapidity approaches unity at large momenta and at all energies.