Nuclear shadowing

Abstract

The phenomenon of shadowing of nuclear structure functions at small values of Bjorken-$x$ is analyzed. First, multiple scattering is discussed as the underlying physical mechanism. In this context three different but related approaches are presented: Glauber-like rescatterings, Gribov inelastic shadowing and ideas based on high-density Quantum Chromodynamics. Next, different parametrizations of nuclear partonic distributions based on fit analysis to existing data combined with Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi evolution, are reviewed. Finally, a comparison of the different approaches is shown, and a few phenomenological consequences of nuclear shadowing in high-energy nuclear collisions are presented.