Energy Dependence of the Cronin Effect from NonLinear QCD Evolution.pdfVIP

Energy Dependence of the Cronin Effect from Non-Linear QCD Evolution∗ 1,2 2 2,3 2 2 Javier L. Albacete , N´estor Armesto , Alex Kovner , Carlos A. Salgado and Urs Achim Wiedemann 1 Departamento de F´ısica, Universidad de C´ordoba, 14071 C´ordoba, Spain 2 Theory Division, CERN, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland 3 Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK (Dated: February 1, 2008) The non-linear evolution of dense partonic systems has been suggested as one of the novel physics mechanisms relevant to the dynamics of hadron–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions at collider energies. Here we study to what extent the description of Cronin enhancement in the framework of this non-linear evolution is consistent with the recent observation in √s = 200 GeV d–Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. We solve the Balitsky-Kovchegov (BK) evolution equation numerically for several initial conditions encoding Cronin enhancement. We find that the properly normalized nuclear gluon distribution is suppressed at all momenta relative to that of a single 3 nucleon. Calculating the resulting spectrum of produced gluons in p–A and A–A collisions, we 0 establish that the nonlinear QCD evolution is unable to generate a Cronin type enhancement, and 0 that it quickly erases any such enhancement which may be pr