Final state interactions and hadron quenching in cold nuclear matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how final state interactions in cold nuclear matter influence hadron production, highlighting their significance in interpreting results from lepton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions, especially at different rapidities.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of final state effects on hadron production in cold nuclear matter and emphasizes their importance in jet tomography analyses.

Findings

Large effect on mid-rapidity hadrons at fixed target energies

Significant final state effects at negative rapidity at RHIC energies

Cold hadron quenching must be considered in medium analysis

Abstract

I examine the role of final state interactions in cold nuclear matter in modifying hadron production on nuclear targets with leptonic or hadronic beams. I demonstrate the extent to which available experimental data in electron-nucleus collisions can give direct information on final state effects in hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. For hadron-nucleus collisions, a theoretical estimate based on a parton energy loss model tested in lepton-nucleus collisions shows a large effect on mid-rapidity hadrons at fixed target experiments. At RHIC energy, the effect is large for negative rapidity hadrons, but mild at midrapidity. This final state cold hadron quenching needs to be taken into account in jet tomographic analysis of the medium created in nucleus-nucleus collisions.