https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2005-02235-8
Theoretical Physics
From leading hadron suppression to jet quenching at RHIC and at the LHC
Theory Division, Department of Physics, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
* e-mail: Urs.Wiedemann@cern.ch
In nucleus-nucleus collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), one generically observes a strong medium-induced suppression of high- p T hadron production. This suppression is accounted for in models which assume a significant medium-induced radiative energy loss of high- p T parent partons produced in the collision. How can we further test the microscopic dynamics conjectured to underlie this abundant high- p T phenomenon? What can we learn about the dynamics of parton fragmentation, and what can we learn about the properties of the medium which modifies it? Given that inelastic parton scattering is expected to be the dominant source of partonic equilibration processes, can we use hard processes as an experimentally well-controlled window into QCD non-equilibrium dynamics? Here I review what has been achieved so far, and which novel opportunities open up with higher luminosity at RHIC, and with the wider kinematical range accessible soon at the LHC.
© Springer-Verlag, 2005
