Mid-Rapidity Neutral Pion Production in Proton-Proto Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of neutral pion production in proton-proton collisions at 200 GeV, confirming perturbative QCD predictions and providing data to refine gluon-to-pion fragmentation functions.

Contribution

First measurement of neutral pion cross sections at mid-rapidity in p+p collisions at 200 GeV with sufficient precision to distinguish between different fragmentation functions.

Findings

Measurements agree with next-to-leading order pQCD predictions.

Data can differentiate between gluon-to-pion fragmentation functions.

Extends the understanding of hadron production at RHIC energies.

Abstract

The invariant differential cross section for inclusive neutral pion production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV has been measured at mid-rapidity |eta| < 0.35 over the range 1 < p_T <~ 14 GeV/c by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Predictions of next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations are consistent with these measurements. The precision of our result is sufficient to differentiate between prevailing gluon-to-pion fragmentation functions.