Do RAA and RCP Quantify Nuclear Medium Effects?

Mr. Robert Zaballa

Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, GSU

Tuesday - Nov. 11, 2008

3:30pm - 4:30 pm

218 NSC

PhD-Physics Defense

Abstract:

With the use of an incoherent binary nucleon-nucleon collision model of AA collisions for simulating particle production, it is demonstrated that RAA and RCP are less than unity for hard scattering in the absence of any nuclear modification effects. RdAu is also shown to approach or exceed unity only if pT broadening is taken into account. With a simple phenomenological parameter, the mean nucleon energy loss fraction, this model yields distributions that are comparable to those of experiment. The nuclear geometry is described by the Glauber model, and particle production is simulated by the PYTHIA event generator.