Profiling hot and dense nuclear medium with high transverse momentum hadrons produced in d+Au and Au+Au collisions by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

TL;DR

This paper presents measurements of high transverse momentum hadrons in d+Au and Au+Au collisions, analyzing nuclear modification factors and parton energy loss to understand the properties of hot and dense nuclear matter.

Contribution

It provides new quantitative insights into parton energy loss and medium effects in heavy-ion collisions using high pT hadron data from the PHENIX experiment.

Findings

Nuclear modification factors are consistent for $$ and $$ collisions.

Fractional momentum loss and path-length dependence are quantified.

Spectra shapes are similar across systems, with yield suppression in peripheral Au+Au.

Abstract

PHENIX measurements of high transverse momentum ($p_T$) identified hadrons in $d$+Au and Au+Au collisions are presented. The nuclear modification factors ($R_{d{\rm A}}$ and $R_{\rm AA}$) for $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ are found to be very consistent in both collision systems, respectively. Using large amount of $p+p$ and Au+Au datasets, the fractional momentum loss ($S_{\rm loss}$) and the path-length dependent yield of $\pi^0$ in Au+Au collisions are obtained. The hadron spectra in the most central $d$+Au and the most peripheral Au+Au collisions are studied. The spectra shapes are found to be similar in both systems, but the yield is suppressed in the most peripheral Au+Au collisions.