Nuclear Shadowing and High-pT Hadron Spectra in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
Abstract
We explore how nuclear modifications to the nucleon parton distributions affect production of high-pT hadrons in heavy ion collisions. We perform a leading order calculation of the high-pT charged pion, kaon and proton spectra using standard fragmentation functions and shadowing parameterizations. We also consider alternate models of shadowing. Near midrapidity, shadowing is a small effect and cannot explain the large observed suppression of high-pT hadrons. We also consider the isospin difference between protons and nuclei and find that it is also a small effect on high-pT hadron production.
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