The LHC p+Pb run from the nuclear PDF perspective

TL;DR

This paper discusses how recent LHC p+Pb and Pb+Pb collision data can test the universality of nuclear parton distribution functions (PDFs) at higher energies, comparing measurements to nuclear PDF predictions.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of early LHC p+Pb and Pb+Pb data in the context of nuclear PDFs, highlighting their potential to validate collinear factorization at high energies.

Findings

Initial measurements are consistent with nuclear PDF predictions.

Data at higher energies challenge existing nuclear PDF models.

Results support the universality of nuclear PDFs in high-energy collisions.

Abstract

The p+Pb and Pb+Pb runs at the LHC have opened a possibility to investigate the validity of collinear factorization in a clearly higher center-of-mass energy scale than earlier in nuclear collisions. Indeed, some processes that have been measured routinely in p+p($\overline {\rm p}$) collisions and utilized for years in free proton PDF fits, can now finally be reached also in the nuclear case. Such new data are expected to provide conclusive answers concerning the universality of the nuclear PDFs. In this talk, I will contrast some of the first p+Pb and Pb+Pb measurements to the predictions based on the nuclear PDFs.