Transverse-momentum and collision-energy dependence of high-pT hadron suppression in Au+Au collisions at ultrarelativistic energies

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Oct 24;91(17):172302. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.172302. Epub 2003 Oct 22.

Abstract

We report high statistics measurements of inclusive charged hadron production in Au+Au and p+p collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=200 GeV. A large, approximately constant hadron suppression is observed in central Au+Au collisions for 5<p(T)<12 GeV/c. The collision energy dependence of the yields and the centrality and p(T) dependence of the suppression provide stringent constraints on theoretical models of suppression. Models incorporating initial-state gluon saturation or partonic energy loss in dense matter are largely consistent with observations. We observe no evidence of p(T)-dependent suppression, which may be expected from models incorporating jet attenuation in cold nuclear matter or scattering of fragmentation hadrons.