Speaker
Prof.
Seto Richard
(University of California, Riverside)
Description
Studies of proton (deuteron) - nucleus collisions allow for the detailed examination of
cold nuclear matter effects (including gluon saturation, initial state parton energy loss,
nuclear break up and others), while also providing a crucial baseline for nucleus-nucleus
collisions with additional hot quark-gluon plasma effects. The PHENIX experiment is planning
an ambitious upgrade program referred to as sPHENIX that includes a mid-rapidity solenoid with full
calorimetry coverage. In addition, the sPHENIX planning includes extended forward rapidity coverage.
In this presentation, we detail two example physics observables at forward rapidity that are key
to unraveling these cold nuclear matter effects. The first is the extension of heavy quarkonia measurements to more forward rapidities where the effects of gluon saturation and initial state parton energy loss
are predicted to be enhanced. The second is the determination of transverse momentum dependent (TMD) gluon parton distributions in nuclei. Recent theoretical progress indicates that
while TMD factorization is broken, it is recovered at low-x and makes a direct connection to
Color Glass Condensate calculations. These distributions will be measured using
direct photon-jet and jet-jet correlations - a primary design requirement for the sPHENIX forward
update plan.
Author
Prof.
Seto Richard
(University of California, Riverside)
