Kernphysikalisches Kolloquium

Location: ITP, Science Campus Riedberg, Max-von-Laue-Str. 1, room 02.116
Time: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 16:30-17:30 (plus 10min for discussion)
Contact: hees@fias.uni-frankfurt.de


Perturbative Probes of Heavy Ion Collisions?

William A. Horowitz (University Capetown)

We present comparisons of the latest pQCD- and AdS/CFT-based energy loss models with the newest high-pT measurements from RHIC and LHC. Zero parameter predictions of energy loss from WHDG rigorously constrained to PHENIX π0 RAA data show quantitative agreement with the measured azimuthal anisotropy and D meson suppression at LHC. pQCD predictions follow the qualitative trend of the LHC light hadron suppression, and we report on progress in including next-to-leading order effects which could provide the key ingredient needed for quantitative agreement. LHC D meson predictions from AdS/CFT are oversuppressed compared to data when constrained to RHIC non-photonic electron data, although due to the large experimental uncertainties, the method is not falsified. Finally, we emphasize how the comparison of mass-dependent energy loss calculations to data provides a powerful tool for determining the dominant energy loss mechanism in heavy ion collisions.