Suppression in p-A collisions from charm quark energy loss in cold nuclear matter

Abstract

The energy loss effect of charm quarks in cold nuclear matter on suppression in p-A collisions is studied. By means of two parametrizations of quark energy loss, the leading-order computations for production cross section ratios are presented and compared with the selected E866 experimental data, with the remaining colored on its entire path in the medium. It is found that the energy loss of the color octet is an important effect in suppression; however, whether it is linear or quadratic with the path length cannot be determined. The successful description of suppression in gives the charm quark mean energy loss per unit path length /fm. Using the same quark energy loss model, we further give the phenomenological analysis at the leading order for production cross section ratios as a function of y for the Large Hadron Collider experimental data.