Large-p(T) inclusive pi(0) production in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC

摘要

We present results for the large-p(T) inclusive pi(0) production in p-p and A-A collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. We include the full next-to-leading order radiative corrections, O(alpha(s)(3)), and nuclear effects such as parton energy loss and nuclear shadowing. We find the next-to-leading order corrections and the parton energy loss effect to be large and PT-dependent, while the nuclear shadowing effects are small (< 10%). We calculate the ratio of prompt photons to neutral pions produced in heavy-ion collisions and show that at RHIC energies this ratio increases with PT approaching one at p(T) similar to 8 GeV, due to the large suppression of pi(0) production. We show that at the LHC, this ratio has a steep p(T)-dependence and approaches 25% effect at p(T) similar to 40 GeV. We discuss theoretical uncertainties inherent in our calculation, such as choice of the renormalization, factorization and fragmentation scales and the K-factors which signify the size of higher-order corrections. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. [References: 30]