We demonstrate that the RHIC data for hadron production in d-Au collisions for all available rapidities are compatible with geometric scaling. In order to establish the presence of scaling violations expected from small-x evolution a much larger range in transverse momentum and rapidity needs to be probed. We show that the fall-off of the transverse momentum distribution of produced hadrons at LHC is a sensitive probe of small-x evolution.
The phenomenology of gluon saturation at small parton momentum fraction, Bjorken-x, in the proton and in the nucleus is introduced. The experimentally-accessible kinematic domains at the nucleus-nucleus colliders RHIC and LHC are discussed. Finally, the saturation hints emerging from measurements at RHIC and the perspectives for LHC are described.
We present POWHEG predictions for photon-jet correlations at RHIC and the LHC. We show that the total transverse-momentum spectrum of photons and jets is modified not only by medium, but also by higher-order QCD effects, as is the distribution in their relative azimuthal angle. At the LHC, photon-jet measurements in the forward region allow to probe parton momentum fractions of lead ions down to 10$^{-4}$.
We present our recent results on jet tomography of AA-collisions at RHIC and LHC. We focus on flavor dependence of the nuclear modification factor. The computations are performed accounting for radiative and collisional parton energy loss with running coupling constant.
We investigate the energy dependence of stopping and hadron production in high-energy heavy-ion collisions based on a three-sources Relativistic Diffusion Model. The transport coefficients are extrapolated from Au + Au and Cu + Cu at RHIC energies (sqrt{s_NN)=19.6 - 200 GeV) to Pb + Pb at LHC energies sqrt{s_NN)= 5.52 TeV. Rapidity distributions for net protons, and pseudorapidity spectra for produced charged particles in central collisions are compared to data at RHIC energies, and discussed for several extrapolations to LHC energies.
We show estimates for shadowing of gluons at small values of $x$, appropriate to RHIC and LHC experiments using a new evolution equation which takes into account the effects of gluon recombination to all orders in gluon density. We show that there is a significant depletion in the gluon density of large nuclei.
We predict W and Z transverse momentum distributions from proton-proton and nuclear collisions at RHIC and LHC. A resummation formalism with power corrections to the renormalization group equations is used. The dependence of the resummed QCD results on the non-perturbative input is very weak for the systems considered. Shadowing effects are discussed and found to be unimportant at RHIC, but important for LHC. We study the enhancement of power corrections due to multiple scattering in nuclear collisions and numerically illustrate the weak effects of the dependence on the nuclear mass.
We report results of our ongoing nonperturbative numerical study of a classical effective theory describing low-x partons in the central region of a heavy-ion collision. In particular, we give estimates of the initial transverse energies and multiplicities for a wide range of collision regimes, including those at RHIC and at LHC.
We review the recent results from the computation of saturated next-to-leading order perturbative QCD minijet intial conditions combined with viscous hydrodynamical evolution of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at the LHC and RHIC. Comparison with experimental data is shown.
RHIC data opens new ways of characterizing the medium created in a heavy ion collision by measuring particles with high transverse momentum. In addition to the observation of the predicted jet quenching, the new data on particle correlations indicate that a strong modification of the jet-like shapes is driven by the dynamical properties of the medium. I will review the lessons we are learning from RHIC and outline some new directions which could become of primary importance at the LHC.
I review the color dipole formulation of heavy quark production in the light of recent RHIC data. Since charm and bottom production directly probe the gluon density, these processes allow one to study shadowing and parton saturation at RHIC and LHC. The dipole approach provides a convenient framework to calculate these nuclear effects. I present numerical results for open charm and bottom production in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions and discuss transverse momentum broadening of heavy quarkonia.
We show that the whole range of RHIC data for hadron production in d-Au collisions is compatible with geometric scaling. To establish the scaling violations expected from small-x evolution a larger kinematic range in transverse momentum and rapidity would be needed. We point out that the fall-off of the p_t distribution of produced hadrons at large p_t is a sensitive probe of small-x evolution especially at the LHC.
The dependence of the multiplicity and the transverse momentum distribution on the number of collisions are studied for central and peripheral Au-Au collisions at SPS, RHIC and LHC energies in the framework of percolation of strings. A scaling law relating the multiplicity to the mean transverse momentum is obtained. Our results are in overall agreement with the SPS and RHIC data, obtaining a suppression on $p_T$ distribution even for $p_T$ larger than 1 GeV/c.
I present a brief review of the recent phenomenological analyses of RHIC data based on the the Color Glass Condensate, including the use of non-linear evolution equations with running coupling. In particular, I focus in the study of the total multiplicities in Au+Au collisions, and in the single inclusive and double inclusive forward spectra in d+Au collisions. Predictions for the LHC are also discussed.
The percolation of strings gives a good description of the RHIC experimental data on the elliptic flow, v2 and predicted a rise on the integrated v2 of the order of 25% at LHC such as it has been experimentally obtained. We show that the dependence of v2 on pT for RHIC and LHC energies is approximately the same as it has been observed, for all the centralities. We show the results for different particles and the dependence of v2 on the centralities and rapidity. Our results are compatible with an small value of the ratio eta/s in the whole energy range such as it was expected in the percolatio…
The attenuation of heavy-flavored particles in nucleus-nucleus collisions tests the microscopic dynamics of medium-induced parton energy loss and, in particular, its expected dependence on the identity (color charge and mass) of the parent parton. We discuss the comparison of theoretical calculations with recent single-electron data from RHIC experiments. Then, we present predictions for the heavy-to-light ratios of D and B mesons at LHC energy.
We attempt to deduce simple options of `jet quenching' phenomena in heavy-ion collisions at $\snn=5.5 \tev$ at the LHC from the present knowledge of leading-hadron suppression at RHIC energies. In light of the nuclear modification factor for leading particles we introduce the nuclear modification factor for jets, $\RAA^{jet}$, and for the longitudinal momenta of particles along the jet axis, $\RAA^{p_{\rm L}}$.
We compare fully perturbative and fully nonperturbative pictures of high-pT energy loss calculations to the first results from LHC. While over-suppressed compared to published ALICE data, parameter-free pQCD predictions based on the WHDG energy loss model constrained to RHIC data simultaneously describe well the preliminary CMS hadron suppression, ATLAS charged hadron v2, and ALICE D meson suppression; we also provide for future reference WHDG predictions for B meson RAA. However, energy loss calculations based on AdS/CFT also qualitatively describe well the RHIC pion and non-photonic electron…
This talk will discuss how to compute initial quantites in heavy ion collisions at RHIC (200 AGeV) and at LHC (5500 AGeV) using perturbative QCD (pQCD) by including the next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections and a dynamical determination of the dominant physical scale. The initial numbers are converted into final ones by assuming kinetic thermalization and adiabatic expansion.
The Color Glass Condensate picture of the nuclear wave function at small-x successfully predicted the suppressed production of high-pT particles at forward rapidities in deuteron-gold collisions at RHIC. This triggered more efforts which resulted in theoretical improvements and predictions for different observables which will provide further phenomenological tests. I review recent theoretical developments and discuss the resulting predictions.
Production and elliptic flow of heavy quarks are investigated in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC within the Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings (BAMPS). The initial heavy quark yield is estimated with the leading order mini-jet model and compared to PYTHIA for several parton distribution functions. Secondary production of heavy quarks in the quark-gluon plasma is examined within the full 3+1 dimensional BAMPS simulation of heavy ion collisions. At RHIC this yield is negligible, but for LHC charm production in the QGP plays a significant role. In addition, we study the elli…
We discuss aspects of open and hidden charm production in deuterium-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. We describe calculations of the total $c \bar c$ cross section and the charm quark transverse momentum distributions. We next explain how shadowing and moderate nuclear absorption can explain the PHENIX $J/ψ$ dAu/$pp$ ratios and predict the combined effect of shadowing and absorption in 6.2 TeV d+Pb collisions.
The Odderon remains an elusive object, 33 years after its invention. The Odderon is now a fundamental object in QCD and CGC and it has to be found experimentally if QCD and CGC are right. In the present talk, we show how to find it at RHIC and LHC. The most spectacular signature of the Odderon is the predicted difference between the differential cross-sections for proton-proton and antiproton-proton at high s and moderate t. This experiment can be done by using the STAR detector at RHIC and by combining these future data with the already present UA4/2 data. The Odderon could also be found by A…
Considering the magnetic field response of the QGP medium, we perform a systematical study of the chiral magnetic effect(CME), and make a comparison it with the experimental results for the background-subtracted correlator $H$ at the energies of the RHIC Beam Energy Scan (BES) and LHC energy. The CME signals from our computations show a centrality trend and beam energy dependence that are qualitatively consistent with the experimental measurements of the charge dependent correlations. The time evolution of the chiral electromagnetic current at the RHIC and LHC energies is systematically studie…
We have investigated the build up of anisotropic flows within a parton cascade approach at fixed shear viscosity to entropy density η/s to study the generation of collective flows in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. We present a study of the impact of a temperature dependent η/s(T) on the generation of the elliptic flow at both RHIC and LHC. Finally we show that the transport approach, thanks to its wide validity range, is able to describe naturally the rise - fall and saturation of the v_2(p_T) observed at LHC.
We present results on rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of inclusive charm quark production in hadronic and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies, including the next-to-leading order, $O(α_s^3)$, radiative corrections and the nuclear shadowing effect. We determine the hadronic and the {\it effective} (in-medium) K-factor for the differential and total inclusive charm cross sections. We show that these K-factors have strong $p_T$ dependence. We discuss how measurements of charm production at RHIC and LHC can provide valuable information about the gluon density in a nucleus.
The pseudorapidity distribution of centers of dense isolated groups of particles in HIJING model is determined. It can be considered as the background for Cherenkov gluons. If peaks over this background were found in experiment, they would indicate the onset of new collective effects.
In this paper we investigate the hadron and photon production at forward rapidities in $pp$ and $pA$ collisions considering two phenomenological models based on the Color Glass Condensate formalism. The predictions of these models for the hadron spectra are compared with the dAu and pp RHIC data and the nuclear modification factor $R_{hA}$ is estimated. Our results demonstrate that the analysis of the transverse momentum dependence of this factor allows to discriminate between the phenomenological models. Furthermore, we predict $R_{hA}$ for photon production at forward rapidities at RHIC and …
Despite a wealth of experimental data for high p_T processes in heavy-ion collisions, discriminating between different models of hard parton-medium interactions has been difficult. One important reason is that the pQCD parton spectrum at RHIC kinematics is so steeply falling that distinguishing even a moderate shift in parton energy from complete parton absorption is almost impossible in observable quantities. In essence, energy loss models are effectively only probed in the vicinity of zero energy loss and as a result, only the pathlength dependence of energy loss offers some discriminating p…
Predictions for the pseudorapidity density of charged particles produced in Pb-Pb central collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.5$ TeV are presented. Particle production in such collisions is computed in the framework of k_t-factorization, using running coupling non-linear evolution to determine the transverse momentum and rapidity dependence of the nuclear unintegrated gluon distributions.
An exact analytical solution to the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation is proposed incorporating Mellin transformation with saddle point approximation. The theoretical significance of this solution is its simplicity in form which requires very less number of parameters. Using this solution along with the idea of color glass condensate, a very good description of RHIC and LHC data on differential yield is obtained for d-Au, p-p and p-Pb collisions. Quantitative prediction for the nuclear modification factors for p-Pb, Pb-Pb and Xe-Xe collisions relevant for very recent LHC run 2 is yielded.
High $p_T$ single and dihadron production is studied within a NLO pQCD parton model with jet quenching in high energy $A+A$ collisions at the RHIC/LHC energy. A simultaneous $χ^2$-fit to both single and dihadron spectra can be achieved within a narrow range of energy loss parameter. Punch-through jets are found to result in the dihadron suppression factor slightly more sensitive to medium than the single hadron suppression factor at RHIC. Such jets at LHC are found to dominate high $p_T$ dihadron production and the resulting dihadron spectra are more sensitive to the initial parton distributio…
Despite a wealth of experimental data for high-P_T processes in heavy-ion collisions, discriminating between different models of hard parton-medium interactions has been difficult. A key reason is that the pQCD parton spectrum at RHIC is falling so steeply that distinguishing even a moderate shift in parton energy from complete parton absorption is essentially impossible. In essence, energy loss models are effectively only probed in the vicinity of zero energy loss and, as a result, at RHIC energies only the pathlength dependence of energy loss offers some discriminating power. At LHC however,…
We investigate the photoproduction of $ρ$ mesons in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies in the dipole approach and within two phenomenological models based on the the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) formalism. We estimate the integrated cross section and rapidity distribution for meson production and compare our predictions with the data from the STAR collaboration. In particular, we demonstrate that the total cross section at RHIC is strongly dependent on the energy behavior of the dipole-target cross section at low energies, which is not well determined in the dipole a…
We study the transverse spectra of hadrons in nearly central $AA$ collisions at RHIC and LHC in a broad transverse momentum range Low-$p_T$ spectra are calculated by using boost-invariant hydrodynamics with initial energy and net-baryon densities from the EKRT pQCD+saturation model. High-$p_T$ spectra are obtained from pQCD jet calculation including the energy loss of the parton in the matter prior to its fragmentation to final hadrons.
We discuss aspects of open and hidden charm production in hadron-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. We first discuss the extraction of the total charm cross section in lower energy collisions and how it compares to next-to-leading order quantum chromodynamics calculations. We then describe calculations of the transverse momentum distributions and their agreement with the shape of the measured STAR transverse momentum distributions. We next explain how shadowing and moderate nuclear absorption can explain the PHENIX $J/ψ$ dAu/$pp$ ratios.
We evaluate the Cronin effect in pA collisions at the CERN LHC and at RHIC in the framework of Glauber-Eikonal model of initial state multiparton interactions. Taking carefully into account all kinematical constraints of each multi-parton interaction process we obtain a softening of the spectrum of produced partons, improving in this way the agreement of the model with the recent measurements of pi0 production in d+Au collisions at sqrt{s}=200 AGeV.
Employing the perturbative QCD inspired parton cascade, we investigate kinetic and chemical equilibration of the partonic matter created in central heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. Two types of initial conditions are chosen. One is generated by the model of wounded nucleons using the PYTHIA event generator and Glauber geometry. Another is considered as a color glass condensate. We show that kinetic equilibration is almost independent on the chosen initial conditions, whereas there is a sensitive dependence for chemical equilibration. The time scale of thermalization lies between …
We evaluate differential distributions for the four-body $p p \to n n π^+ π^+$ reaction. The amplitude for the process is calculated in the Regge approach including many diagrams. We make predictions for possible future experiments at RHIC and LHC energies. Very large cross sections are found which is partially due to interference of a few mechanisms. Presence of several interfering mechanisms precludes extraction of the elastic $π^+ π^+$ scattering cross section. Absorption effects are estimated. Differential distributions in pseudorapidity, rapidity, invariant two-pion mass, transverse-momen…
The model to simulate rescattering and partonic energy loss in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is presented. The full heavy ion event is obtained as a superposition of a soft hydro-type state and hard multi-jets. This model is capable of reproducing main features of the jet quenching pattern at RHIC, and is applied to probe jet quenching in various novel channels at LHC.
Minijet production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions is discussed by taking semi-hard parton rescatterings explicitly into account. At both RHIC and LHC energies we find sizable effects on global characteristics of the nuclear collision like the initial multiplicity and transverse energy of the minijets. The dependence of these quantities on the cutoff that separates soft and hard interactions becomes much smoother after the inclusion of the rescatterings. This allows to define an energy and centrality dependent saturation cutoff and to push perturbative computations to rather low val…
The Odderon remains an elusive object, 33 years after its invention. The Odderon is now a fundamental object in QCD and CGC and it has to be found experimentally if QCD and CGC are right. In the present paper, we show how to find it at RHIC and LHC. The most spectacular signature of the Odderon is the predicted difference between the differential cross-sections for proton-proton and antiproton-proton at high s and moderate t. The experiment can be done by using the STAR detector at RHIC and by combining these future data with the already present UA4/2 data. The Odderon could also be found by A…
We calculate the transverse momentum distribution of low-mass Drell-Yan pairs in QCD perturbation theory with all-order resummation. We demonstrate that the transverse momentum distribution of low-mass Drell-Yan pairs is an advantageous source of constraints on the gluon distribution and its nuclear dependence. With the reduction in background, we argue that low-mass Drell-Yan pairs in the forward region provide a good and clean probe of small-x gluons at RHIC and LHC.
We study the enhancement of $c \bar c$ pair production that takes place in central heavy ion collisions due to the formation of clusters of strings. These clusters produce heavy flavors more efficiently due to their higher color. We discuss the competition between this mechanism and the well-known screening of color charge, which, above a critical string density, reduces strongly the probability of binding these $c \bar c$ pairs to form $J/Ψ$ particles. The dependence of $J/Ψ$ suppression on the centrality shows a peak at both RHIC and LHC energies corresponding to the percolation critical den…
We calculate the yields of a variety of hadrons for RHIC and LHC energies assuming thermodynamical equilibration of the produced minijets, and using as input results from pQCD for the energy densities at midrapidity. In the calculation of the production of partons and of transverse energy one has to account for nuclear shadowing. By using two parametrizations for the gluon shadowing one derives energy densities differing strongly in magnitude. In this publication we link those perturbatively calculated energy densities of partons via entropy conservation in an ideal fluid to the hadron multipl…
In ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions heavy quarks are produced out of thermal equilibrium in the very early stage of the reaction and their thermalization time was expected to be considerably larger than that of light quarks. On the other hand, a strongly-interacting QGP can be envisaged in the heavy quark sector due to the presence of heavy-light hadron-like resonances in the QGP for temperatures up to $\sim$$2 T_{C}$. We investigate the consequences of such states employing a relativistic Langevin simulation. Hadronization is modeled by a coalescence-fragmentation scheme. We present the p…
Central exclusive production (CEP) processes in high-energy hadron collisions offer a very promising framework for studying both novel aspects of QCD and new physics signals. We report on the results of a theoretical study of the CEP of heavy quarkonia (chi and eta) at the Tevatron, RHIC and LHC. These processes provide important information on the physics of bound states and can probe the current ideas and methods of QCD, such as effective field theories and lattice QCD.
A new shooting string holographic model of jet quenching of light quarks in strongly coupled plasmas is presented to overcome the phenomenological incompatibilities of previous falling string holographic scenarios that emerged when confronted with the recent LHC data. This model is based on strings with finite momentum endpoints that start close to the horizon and lose energy as they approach the boundary. This framework is applied to compute the nuclear modification factor RAA of light hadrons at RHIC and LHC, showing that this model improves greatly the comparison with the recent light hadro…
The observed suppression of high-$p_\perp$ hadrons allows different explanations. We discuss two possible scenarios: In scenario 1, parton energy loss from scattering in the hot medium is complemented by final state interactions in the resonance matter. Scenario 2 has an enhanced transport parameter $\hat q$ which is fitted to RHIC data. For LHC, the two scenarios lead to very different predictions for the nuclear modification factor of hadrons. In addition, jet reconstruction allows more specific tests of the mechanisms responsible for jet quenching. We calculate the distribution of partons i…
Using the unintegrated gluon distribution obtained from numerical simulations of the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation with running coupling, we obtain a very good description of RHIC data on single inclusive hadron production at forward rapidities in both p+p and d+Au collisions. No K-factors are needed for charged hadrons, whereas for pion production a rapidity independent K-factor of order 1/3 is needed. Extrapolating to LHC energies, we calculate nuclear modification factors for light hadrons in p+Pb collision, as well as the contribution of initial state effects to the suppression of the nuclea…
The photonuclear production of vector mesons in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions is investigated within the collinear approach using different parameterizations for the nuclear gluon distribution. The integrated cross section and the rapidity distribution for the $AA \to V AA$ ($V = J/Ψ, Υ$) process are computed for energies of RHIC and LHC. A comparison with the recent PHENIX data on coherent production of $J/Ψ$ mesons is also presented. We demonstrate that the study of the exclusive quarkonium photoproduction can be used to constrain the nuclear effects in the gluon distribution.
We calculate the yields of pions, kaons, and $ϕ$-mesons for RHIC and LHC energies assuming thermodynamical equilibration of the produced minijets, and using as input results from pQCD for the energy densities at midrapidity. In the calculation of the production of partons and of transverse energy one has to account for nuclear shadowing. By using two parametrizations for the gluon shadowing one derives energy densities differing strongly in magnitude. In this publication we link those perturbatively calculated energy densities of partons via entropy conservation in an ideal fluid to the hadron…
We consider high-energy proton-heavy nucleus scattering within the framework of the Glauber-Gribov approximation and taking into account cross section fluctuations. Fixing parameters of the model for cross section fluctuations by the available data, we make predictions for the total, elastic and coherent diffractive dissociation proton-nucleus cross sections for the RHIC and LHC energy range. We predict a strong change of the A-dependence of diffraction dissociation from A^{0.42} at RHIC energies to A^{0.27} at LHC energies. Based on the obtained results, we discuss the approach of the interac…
Fully dynamic simulations of heavy ion collisions at RHIC and at LHC energies within the perturbative QCD-based partonic transport model BAMPS (Boltzmann Approach to Multi-Parton Scatterings) are presented, focusing on the simultaneous investigation of jet quenching and elliptic flow. The model features inelastic 2 <-> 3 processes based on the Gunion-Bertsch matrix element and has recently been extended to include light quark degrees of freedom, allowing for direct comparison to hadronic data on the nuclear modification factor via a fragmentation scheme for high-pT partons. The nuclear modific…
We discuss features of charmonium suppression at $\sqtr{s} = 200$ GeV within the framework of the Glauber-Gribov theory and the comovers interaction model. The latter approach has been extended by allowing for secondary charmonium production due to recombination of $c\bar{c}$ pairs in the medium, estimated from pp data at the same bombarding energy. Centrality and rapidity dependence of the nuclear modification factor for J/psi in d+Au, Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at RHIC are reproduced without fitting a single model parameter. A strong suppression of J/psi is predicted for LHC energies.
We present results on rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of inclusive charm quark production in hadronic and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies, including the next-to-leading order, $O(α_s^3)$, radiative corrections and the nuclear shadowing effect. We determine hadronic and nuclear K-factor for the differential and total inclusive cross sections for the charm production. We discuss theoretical uncertainties inherent in our calculation. In particular, we find that different extrapolations of gluon density to low-$x$ region introduce large theoretical uncertainty in the c…
In the paper, we make a comprehensive study on the hadroproduction of the $B_c (B_c^*)$ meson via the gluon-gluon fusion mechanism at the RHIC and LHC colliders. Total and differential cross sections via the proton-nucleus ($p$-N) and nucleus-nucleus (N-N) collision modes have been discussed under various collision energies. To compare with those via the proton-proton collision mode at the LHC, we observe that sizable number of $B_c (B_c^*)$-meson events can also be produced via the $p$-N and N-N collision modes at the RHIC and LHC. If assuming the spin-triplet $B^*_c$ meson directly decays to…
A new geometrical scaling method with gluon saturation rapidity limit is proposed to study the gluon saturation feature of the central rapidity region of relativistic nuclear collisions. The net-baryon number is essentially transported by valence quarks that probe the saturation regime in the target by multiple scattering. We take advantage of the gluon saturation model with geometric scaling of the rapidity limit to investigate the net baryon distributions, nuclear stopping power and gluon saturation features in the SPS and RHIC energy regions. Predictions for net-baryon rapidity distribution…
We use recent nuclear parton distributions, among them the Hirai--Kumano--Nagai (HKN) and Eskola--Paukkunen--Salgado (EPS08) parameterizations, in our pQCD-improved parton model to calculate the nuclear modification factor, R_{AA'}(p_T), at RHIC and at the LHC. At RHIC, the deuteron-gold nuclear modification factor for pions, measured at p_T > 10 GeV/c in central collisions, appears to deviate more from unity than the model results. The slopes of the calculated R_{dAu}(p_T) are similar to the slopes of the PHENIX pion and photon data. At LHC, without final-state effects we see a small enhancem…
We review the current status of jet measurements in heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We discuss how the current measurements provide information about the quark-gluon plasma and discuss near future opportunities at both RHIC and the LHC.
We perform a joint jet tomographic analysis of the data on the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ from PHENIX at RHIC and ALICE at LHC. The computations are performed accounting for radiative and collisional parton energy loss with running coupling constant. Our results show that the observed slow variation of $R_{AA}$ from RHIC to LHC indicates that the QCD coupling constant is suppressed in the quark-gluon plasma produced at LHC.
