The imbalance of dijets produced in hadronic collisions has been used to extract the average transverse momentum of partons inside the hadrons. In this paper we discuss new contributions to the dijet imbalance that could complicate or even hamper this extraction. They are due to polarization of initial state partons inside unpolarized hadrons that can arise in the presence of nonzero parton transverse momentum. Transversely polarized quarks and linearly polarized gluons produce specific azimuthal dependences of the two jets that in principle are not suppressed. Their effects cannot be isolated just by looking at the angular deviation from the back-to-back situation, rather they enter jet broadening observables. In this way they directly affect the extraction of the average transverse momentum of unpolarized partons that is thought to be extracted. We discuss appropriately weighted cross sections to isolate the additional contributions.
We compare several recent theoretical studies of the single transverse spin asymmetry in dijet-correlations at hadron colliders. We show that the results of these studies are all consistent. To establish this, we investigate in particular the two-gluon exchange contributions to the relevant initial and final state interactions in the context of a simplifying model. Overall, the results confirm that the dijet imbalance obeys at best a non-standard or "generalized" transverse-momentum-dependent factorization.
We present a numerical program, CAESAR, that allows us to resum large logarithmic contributions to jet observables in a fully automated way. As an application we obtain the first next-to-leading logarithmic distributions for event shapes in hadronic dijet production.
We critically re-examine the calculation of central production of dijets in quasi-elastic hadronic collisions. We find that the process is not dominated by the perturbative contribution, and discuss several sources of uncertainties in the calculation.
In view of the recent diffractive dijet data from CDF run II, we critically re-evaluate the standard approach to the calculation of central production of dijets in quasi-elastic hadronic collisions. We find that the process is dominated by the non-perturbative region, and that even perturbative ingredients, such as the Sudakov form factor, are not under theoretical control. Comparison with data allows us to fix some of the uncertainties. Although we focus on dijets, our arguments apply to other high-mass central systems, such as the Higgs boson.
We study forward dijet production in dilute-dense hadronic collisions. By considering the appropriate limits, we show that both the transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) and the high-energy factorization formulas can be derived from the Color Glass Condensate framework. Respectively, this happens when the transverse momentum imbalance of the dijet system, $k_t$, is of the order of either the saturation scale, or the hard jet momenta, the former being always much smaller than the latter. We propose a new formula for forward dijets that encompasses both situations and is therefore applicable regar…
The appearance of monojets is among the most striking signature of jet quenching in the context of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Experimentally, the asymmetry of back-to-back jets is quantified in terms of the dijet imbalance distribution by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. Recently, the CMS collaboration has also studied the trigger jet momentum (P_T) dependence of the imbalance in the range between 120 and 500 GeV which is found to decrease with jet P_T. In this work, results from the in-medium shower code YaJEM are compared with this data set. These r…
We study the transverse momentum resummation for dijet correlation in hadron collisions based on the Collins-Soper-Sterman formalism. The complete one-loop calculations are carried out in the collinear factorization framework for the differential cross sections at low imbalance transverse momentum between the two jets. Important cross checks are performed to demonstrate that the soft divergences cancelled out between different diagrams, and in particular, those associated with final state jets. The leading and sub-leading logarithms are identified. All order resummation is derived following th…
We study the single transverse-spin asymmetry for dijet production in hadronic collisions in both the collinear QCD factorization approach and the Brodsky-Hwang-Schmidt model. We show that a nonvanishing asymmetry is generated by both initial-state and final-state interactions, and that the final-state interactions dominate. We find that in the leading kinematic region where the transverse momentum imbalance of the two jets, q_\perp = P_{1\perp}+P_{2\perp}, is much less than the momentum of either jet, the contribution from the lowest non-trivial perturbative order to both the spin-averaged an…
We investigate the cold nuclear matter(CNM) effects on dijet productions in high-energy nuclear collisions at LHC with the next-to-leading order perturbative QCD. The nuclear modifications for dijet angular distributions, dijet invariant mass spectra, dijet transverse momentum spectra and dijet momentum imbalance due to CNM effects are calculated by incorporating EPS, EKS, HKN and DS param-etrization sets of parton distributions in nucleus . It is found that dijet angular distributions and dijet momentum imbalance are insensitive to the initial-state CNM effects and thus provide optimal tools …
The dijet invariant mass distributions from the hadronic decay of unpolarized top quark ($t\to b W^+$ followed by $W^+\to u \bar{d}$) are calculated, including the next-to-leading order QCD radiative corrections. We treat the top decay in the complex mass scheme due to the existence of the intermediate state W boson. Our analytical expressions are also available in different dimensional regularization schemes and $γ_5$ strategies. Finally, in order to construct the jets, we use different jet algorithms to compare their influences on our results. The obtained dijet mass distributions from the t…
We discuss threshold resummation for dijet production in hadronic collisions. Resummation to next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy is given in terms of an anomalous dimension matrix for each partonic subprocess involved.
We study the production of jets in hadronic collisions, by computing all contributions proportional to $α_S^nα^m$, with $n+m=2$ and $n+m=3$. These correspond to leading and next-to-leading order results, respectively, for single-inclusive and dijet observables in a perturbative expansion that includes both QCD and electroweak effects. We discuss issues relevant to the definition of hadronic jets in the context of electroweak corrections, and present sample phenomenological predictions for the 13-TeV LHC. We find that both the leading and next-to-leading order contributions largely respect the …
We analyse the origin of dramatic breakdown of diffractive factorisation, observed in single-diffractive (SD) dijet production in hadronic collisions. One of the sources is the application of the results of measurements of the diagonal diffractive DIS to the off-diagonal hadronic diffractive process. The suppression caused by a possibility of inelastic interaction with the spectator partons is calculated at the amplitude level, differently from the usual probabilistic description. It turns out, however, that interaction with the spectator partons not only suppresses the SD cross section, but a…
We derive all order soft gluon resummation in dijet azimuthal angular correlation in hadronic collisions at the next-to-leading logarithmic level. The relevant coefficients for the Sudakov resummation factor, the soft and hard factors, are calculated. The theory predictions agree well with the experimental data from D0 Collaboration at the Tevatron. This provides a benchmark calculation for the transverse momentum dependent QCD resummation for jet productions in hadron collisions and can be readily applied at the CERN LHC.
The scale factor is the effective cross section used to characterize the measured rate of inclusive double dijet production in high energy hadron collisions. It is sensitive to the two-parton distributions in the hadronic projectile. In principle, the scale factor depends on the center of mass energy and on the minimal transverse energy of the jets contributing to the double dijet cross section. Here, we point out that proton-proton collisions at the LHC will provide for the first time experimental access to these scale dependences in a logarithmically wide, nominally perturbative kinematic ra…
We study the single spin asymmetry in the back-to-back dijet production in transversely polarized proton-proton collisions. Such an asymmetry is generated by the Sivers functions in the incoming polarized proton. We propose a QCD formalism in terms of the transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions, which allow us to resum the large logarithms that arise in the perturbative calculations. We make predictions for the Sivers asymmetry of hadronic dijet production at the kinematic region that is relevant to the experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We further co…
Dijets observed near midrapidity in high-energy nuclear collisions result from large-angle scattering of low-$x$ partons (gluons) within projectile hadrons as a signature manifestation of QCD. Within the same collisions it has been claimed that hydrodynamic flows (radial, elliptic and "higher harmonic" flows) carried by a dense QCD medium or quark-gluon plasma (QGP) dominate the observed hadronic final state. The flow-QGP narrative is imposed {\em a priori} on primary particle data, and of all possible analysis methods a subset A that seems to support that narrative is preferred. The present s…
We consider hard diffractive events in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, in which both protons escape the collision intact. In such double Pomeron exchange processes, we propose to measure dijets and photon-jet final states, and we show that it has the potential to pin down the Pomeron quark and gluon contents, a crucial ingredient in the standard QCD description of hard diffraction. By comparing with predictions of the soft color interaction approach, we also show that more generally, the measurement of the photon-jet to di-jet cross section ratio can put stringent test on the QCD dynamics…
Grand unified theories (GUTs) and extra dimensions are potential ingredients of the new physics that may resolve various outstanding problems of the Standard Model. If the inverse size of (one of) the extra dimension(s) is smaller than the GUT scale and standard gauge bosons are allowed to propagate in the bulk then, among other consequences, the evolution of the gauge couplings deviates from the usual logarithmic running somewhat below and between these two scales. In this work, we show that if the compactification scale is the order of 10 TeV, then this modified running may be observable at …
We propose a factorization formula for the cross section for forward dijet production in dilute-dense collisions. The new formula is applicable for an arbitrary value of the momentum imbalance of the two jets, $k_t$. It unifies the previously derived transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization for small $k_t$ (of the order of the saturation scale), and the High Energy Factorization (HEF) for large $k_t$ (of the order of the momentum of the jets). We extend the previous TMD formula, first to finite $N_c$, and then to all ranges of $k_t$ by including off-shell matrix elements. We present p…
The new numerical approach that includes 1 to 2 mechanism is applied to double parton scattering (DPS) in W+dijet and Z+dijet final state production in proton-proton collisions at LHC. By using the underlying event (UE) simulation from a pythia 8 tune extracted in hadronic events, we show that, like in the case of a four-jet final state, the inclusion of 1 to 2 mechanism improves the description of experimental data measured at 7 TeV. In addition, predictions for proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV are shown for DPS- and UE-sensitive observables.
We demonstrate that hard dijet production via coherent inelastic diffraction is a promising channel for probing gluon saturation at the Electron-Ion Collider. By $inelastic$ diffraction we mean a process in which the two hard jets - a quark-antiquark pair generated by the decay of the virtual photon - are accompanied by a softer gluon jet, emitted by the quark or the antiquark. This process can be described as the elastic scattering of an effective gluon-gluon dipole. The cross section takes a factorised form, between a hard factor and a unintegrated ("Pomeron") gluon distribution describing t…
Resummed azimuthal decorrelation and transverse momentum imbalance of dijets at the LHC
Fudan University(复旦大学);Shanghai Research Center for Theoretical Nuclear Physics, NSFC and Fudan University(NSFC与复旦大学上海理论核物理研究中心);Center for High Energy Physics, Peking University(北京大学高能物理中心);University of Vienna(维也纳大学);Nikhef(尼赫夫国家粒子物理研究所);University of Amsterdam(阿姆斯特丹大学);Instituto Galego de Física de Altas Enerxías IGFAE, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela(圣地亚哥-德孔波斯特拉大学加利西亚高能物理研究所)
Based on an approach to non-Abelian propagation of color dipoles in a nuclear medium we formulate a nonlinear k_t-factorization for the breakup of photons and pions into forward hard dijets in terms of the collective Weizsäcker-Williams (WW) glue of nuclei. We find quite distinct practical consequences of nonlinear nuclear k_t-factorization for interactions of pointlike photons and non-pointlike pions. In the former case the large transverse momentum p_t of jets comes from the intrinsic momentum of quarks and antiquarks in the photon and nuclear effects manifest themselves as an azimuthal deco…
We study single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering with transversely polarized target. Based on the QCD factorization approach, we consider Sivers and Collins contributions to the asymmetries. We fit simple parameterizations for the Sivers and Collins functions to the recent HERMES data, and compare to results from COMPASS. Using the fitted parameterizations for the Sivers functions, we predict the single transverse spin asymmetries for various processes in $pp$ collisions at RHIC, including the Drell-Yan process and angular correlations in dijet and jet-plus-photon p…
Modifications of jets in the existence of a hot and dense QCD medium have recently attracted a lot of attentions. In this talk, we demonstrate how jet-medium interactions change the behavior of jets by offering examples of inclusive jet and dijet productions at $ {\cal O}(α_s^3)$ in heavy ion collisions including initial-state cold nuclear effects and especially the final-state parton energy loss effect. The suppression of inclusive jet spectrum varying with jet radii and a flatter dijet momentum imbalance as compared to those in hadron-hadron collisions are observed in high-energy nuclear col…
The first LHC data on high transverse momentum hadron and dijet spectra in PbPb collisions at center-of-mass energy 2.76 TeV per nucleon pair are analyzed in the frameworks of PYQUEN jet quenching model. The presented studies for the nuclear modification factor of high-pT hadrons and the imbalance in dijet transverse energy support the supposition that the intensive wide-angular ("out-of-cone") medium-induced partonic energy loss is seen in central PbPb collisions at the LHC.
The production of a hard dijet with small transverse momentum imbalance in semi-inclusive DIS probes the conventional and linearly polarized Weizsaecker-Williams (WW) Transverse Momentum Dependent (TMD) gluon distributions. The latter, in particular, gives rise to an azimuthal dependence of the dijet cross-section. In this paper we analyze the feasibility of a measurement of these TMDs through dijet production in DIS on a nucleus at an Electron-Ion Collider. We introduce the MCDijet Monte-Carlo generator to sample quark-antiquark dijet configurations based on leading order parton level cross-…
Within a multi-phase transport (AMPT) model, dijet asymmetry is studied in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV. It is found that a large dijet asymmetry ($A_{J}$) is produced by strong interactions between jets and partonic matter. It is demonstrated that hadronization and final-state hadronic rescatterings have little effects on $A_{J}$. The final $A_{J}$ is found to be driven by both initial $A_{J}$ and partonic jet energy loss, which is consistent with an increasing jet energy loss in a hot and strongly interacting partonic medium in more central Pb+Pb collisions.
In these proceedings, we review the production of both light and heavy flavor dijets in heavy ion collisions and highlight a promising observable to expose their distinct signatures. We propose the modification of dijet invariant mass distributions in heavy ion collisions as a novel observable that exhibits striking sensitivity to the quark-gluon plasma transport properties and heavy quark mass effects on in-medium parton showers. This observable has the advantage of amplifying the effects of jet quenching in contrast to conventional observables, such as the dijet momentum imbalance shift, whi…
In this talk we apply the photoproduction framework recently implemented into the Pythia 8 Monte Carlo event generator to study the potential of photo-nuclear dijets in ultra-peripheral Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC to further constrain the nuclear PDFs. These events can be described as $γ$A collisions where the relevant part of the flux of quasi-real photons from heavy-ions is obtained by using the equivalent photon approximation and cutting out impact-parameter values which would lead to hadronic interactions between the beam particles. In particular, we quantify the small-$x$ reach with diffe…
The overall transverse momentum balance and the redistribution of the lost energy from hard jets for asymmetric dijet events in PbPb collisions at 2.76~ATeV at the LHC is studied within A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model. A detailed analysis is performed for the projected transverse momentum $\langle \slashed{p}_{T}^{||} \rangle$ contributed from the final charged hadrons carrying different transverse momenta and emitted from different angular directions. We find that the transverse momentum projection $\langle \slashed{p}_{T}^{||} \rangle $ in the leading jet direction is mainly contributed…
We report our recent theoretical calculations for $b\bar{b}$ dijet production in high-energy nuclear collisions. The NLO+parton shower (PS) event generator SHERPA has been employed to provide the pp baseline of $b\bar{b}$ dijet production. A framework which combines Langevin transport equation to describe the evolution of heavy quarks and the higher-twist scheme to consider the inelastic energy loss of both light and heavy partons has been implemented. Within this framework, we present the theoretical result of transverse momentum imbalance $x_J=p_{T1}/p_{T2}$ both for inclusive dijet and $b\b…
Using the framework that interpolates between the leading power limit of the Color Glass Condensate and the High Energy (or $k_{T}$) factorization we calculate the direct component of the forward dijet production in ultra-peripheral $\mathrm{Pb}$-$\mathrm{Pb}$ collisions at CM energy $5.1\,\mathrm{TeV}$ per nucleon pair. The formalism is applicable when the average transverse momentum of the dijet system $P_{T}$ is much bigger than the saturation scale $Q_{s}$, $P_{T}\gg Q_{s}$, while the imbalance of the dijet system can be arbitrary. The cross section is uniquely sensitive to the Weizsäcker-…
Back-to-back light and heavy flavor dijet measurements are promising experimental channels to accurately study the physics of jet production and propagation in a dense QCD medium. They can provide new insights into the path length, color charge, and mass dependence of quark and gluon energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma produced in reactions of ultra-relativistic nuclei. To this end, we perform a comprehensive study of both light and heavy flavor dijet production in heavy ion collisions. We propose the modification of dijet invariant mass distributions in such reactions as a novel observable …
It is argued that the breakdown of factorization observed recently in the diffractive dijet production in deep inelastic lepton induced and hadron induced processes is naturally explained in the Good-Walker picture of diffraction dissociation. The explicit formula for the hadronic cross-section is given and successfully compared with the existing data.
We calculate in perturbative QCD the transverse momentum imbalance of dijet and dihadron production in high energy p+A (d+A) collisions. We evaluate the effect of both initial- and final-state multiple scattering, which determines the strength of this transverse momentum imbalance. Combining this new result with the suppression of the cross section in d+Au collisions, which arises from cold nuclear matter energy loss and coherent power corrections, we are able to describe the dihadron correlations measured by both PHENIX and STAR collaborations at RHIC, including mid-mid, mid-forward, and forw…
We compute the differential yield for quark anti-quark dijet production in high-energy electron-proton and electron-nucleus collisions at small $x$ as a function of the relative momentum $\boldsymbol{P}_\perp$ and momentum imbalance $\boldsymbol{k}_\perp$ of the dijet system for different photon virtualities $Q^2$, and study the elliptic and quadrangular anisotropies in the relative angle between $\boldsymbol{P}_\perp$ and $\boldsymbol{k}_\perp$. We review and extend the analysis in [1], which compared the results of the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) with those obtained using the transverse mom…
We study a transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization framework for the processes of di-jet and heavy meson pair production in deep-inelastic-scattering in an electron-proton collider, considering the measurement of the transverse momentum imbalance of the two hard probes in the Breit frame. For the factorization theorem we employ soft-collinear and boosted-heavy-quark effective field theories. The factorized cross-section for both processes is sensitive to gluon unpolarized and linearly polarized TMD distributions and requires the introduction of a new soft function. We calculate the n…
We study the transport dynamics of momenta deposited from jets in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. Assuming that the high-energy partons traverse expanding quark-gluon fluids and are subject to lose their energy and momentum, we simulate dijet asymmetric events by solving relativistic hydrodynamic equations numerically without linearization in the fully (3+1)-dimensional coordinate. Mach cones are formed and strongly broadened by radial flow of the background medium. As a result, the yield of low-$p_{T}$ particles increases at large angles from the jet axis and compensates the dijet mom…
We propose possible signatures of `exogamous' combinations between partons in the different W+ and W- hadron showers in e+e- -> W+W- events with purely hadronic final states. Within the space-time model for hadronic shower development that we have proposed previously, we find a possible difference of about 10 % between the mean hadronic multiplicity in such purely hadronic final states and twice the hadronic multiplicity in events in which one W decays hadronically and the other leptonically, i.e., <N_had(2W)> \ne 2 <N_{had}(W)>, associated with the formation of hadronic clusters by `exogamous…
In this paper, we show predictions from a new QGP-free, no-equilibration, improved baseline model for heavy-ion collisions. It is comprised of the PYTHIA Angantyr event generator coupled to UrQMD, as a hadronic cascade simulator, and compared to ALICE and CMS data from Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV. This coupling is made possible due to a new implementation of the hadron vertex model in PYTHIA Angantyr. Hadronic rescattering in UrQMD is shown to lead to a significant suppression of mid- to high-$p_\perp$ particle yields that is qualitatively consistent with measurements o…
Within a multi-phase transport model with string melting scenario, jet transport parameter $\hat{q}$ is calculated in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN} } $= 200 GeV and Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN} } $= 2.76 TeV. The $\hat{q}$ increases with the increasing of jet energy for both partonic phase and hadronic phase. The energy and path length dependences of $\hat{q}$ in full heavy-ion evolution are consistent with the expectations of jet quenching. The correlation between jet transport parameter $\hat{q}$ and dijet transverse momentum asymmetry $A_{J}$ is mainly investigated, which discloses…
Predictions from widely-used neutrino-nucleus interaction event generators are compared to measurements of transverse kinematic imbalances, made by both the T2K and MINERvA experiments, to allow a joint characterisation of the nuclear physics processes responsible for some of the largest uncertainties in measurements of neutrino oscillations. The role of nucleon-nucleon correlations, initial state nucleon Fermi motion and hadronic re-interactions inside the nuclear medium are explored and areas requiring more theoretical input are identified.
In this contribution to Light Cone 2014, three average transverse momentum quantities are discussed: the Sivers shift, the dijet imbalance, and the $p_T$ broadening. The definitions of these quantities involve integrals over all transverse momenta that are overly sensitive to the region of large transverse momenta, which conveys little information about the transverse momentum distributions of quarks and gluons inside hadrons. TMD factorization naturally suggests alternative definitions of such integrated quantities, using Bessel-weighting and rapidity cut-offs, with the conventional definitio…
The anomalous currents of two-flavor chiral nuclear matter in the presence of chiral imbalance are computed, using recently developed methods exploiting generalized transgression, which facilitates the evaluation of both the equilibrium partition function and the covariant currents. The constitutive relations for both the broken and unbroken phase of the theory are studied and the out-of-equilibrium nondissipative transport coefficients determined. In the superfluid phase, the vector covariant currents exhibit nondissipative chiral electric, magnetic, and vortical effects, the latter governed …
Quantifying TMD factorization breaking at tree level
Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (MOE), Institute of Frontier and Interdisciplinary Science, Shandong University(粒子物理与粒子辐照教育部重点实验室,前沿交叉科学研究院,山东大学);Southern Center for Nuclear-Science Theory (SCNT), Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences(南方核科学理论中心,现代物理研究所,中国科学院)
We study momentum imbalance as a function of jet asymmetry in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. To implement parton production during the collision, we include all Leading Order (LO) $2\to 2$ and $2\to 3$ parton processes in pQCD. The produced partons lose energy within the quark gluon plasma and hadronize collinearly when they leave it. The energy and momentum deposited into the plasma is described using linear viscous hydrodynamics with a constant energy loss per unit length and a total energy loss given by a Gaussian probability centered around a mean value $\bar{\mathcal{E}}$ and a half-wi…
The mechanisms leading to the hadronic final state of high-energy proton-proton collisions remain an unresolved issue at the RHIC and LHC. A substantial contribution to the hadronic final state from minimum-bias (MB) jets is dominated by non-perturbative processes and may provide the common base for any high-energy dijet. Observation of a same-side (on azimuth)"ridge" in LHC p-p collisions suggests to some that hydrodynamic flows may play a role in that small system at higher energies. The issue of p-p centrality vs triggered jets has emerged in the context of gluon transverse distributions in…
Back-to-back dijet production in DIS at arbitrary Bjorken-x: TMD gluon distributions to twist-3 accuracy
Brookhaven National Laboratory(布鲁克海文国家实验室);North Carolina State University(北卡罗来纳州立大学);Center for Frontiers in Nuclear Science (CFNS) at Stony Brook University(石溪大学核科学前沿中心)
Within a multi-phase transport (AMPT) model with string melting scenario, the transverse momentum imbalance between prompt photon and jet is studied in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV. Jet loses more energy in more central collisions due to strong partonic interactions between jet parton shower and partonic matter, which is more significant than due to hadronic interactions only. The hadronization and final-state hadronic interactions have little influences on the imbalance. The imbalance ratio $x_{jγ}$ is sensitive to both production position and passing direction of $γ$…
Ultra-peripheral collisions are the energy frontier for photon-mediated interactions, reaching, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), $γ-p$ center of mass energies five to ten times higher than at HERA and reaching $γγ$ energies higher than at LEP. Photoproduction of heavy quarkonium and dijets in $pp$ and $pA$ collisions probes the gluon distribution in protons at Bjorken-$x$ values down to $3\times10^{-6}$, far smaller than can be otherwise studied. In $AA$ collisions, these reactions probe the gluon distributions in heavy ions, down to $x$ values of a few $10^{-5}$. Although more theoretical …