Multiple scattering effects on inclusive particle production in the large-x regime

Abstract

We study the multiple scattering effects on inclusive particle production in p+A and $\gamma$+A collisions. Specifically, we concentrate on the region where the parton momentum fraction in the nucleus $x\sim {\cal O}(1)$ and incoherent multiple interactions are relevant. By taking into account both initial-state and final-state double scattering, we derive the nuclear size-enhanced power corrections to the differential cross section for single inclusive hadron production in p+A and $\gamma$+A reactions, and for prompt photon production in p+A reactions. We find that the final result can be written in a simple compact form in terms of four-parton correlation functions, in which the second-derivative, first-derivative and non-derivative terms of the correlation distributions share the same hard-scattering functions. We expect our result to be especially relevant for understanding the nuclear modification of particle production in the backward rapidity regions in p+A and e+A collisions.