Suppression Pattern of Neutral Pions at High Transverse Momentum in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ Collisions at $\sqrt{{s}_{NN}}=200\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ and Constraints on Medium Transport Coefficients

Suppression Pattern of Neutral Pions at High Transverse Momentum in $Au + Au$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{N N}} = 200 GeV$ and Constraints on Medium Transport Coefficients

A. Adare et al. (PHENIX Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 232301 – Published 3 December 2008

Abstract

For $Au + Au$ collisions at 200 GeV, we measure neutral pion production with good statistics for transverse momentum, $p_{T}$ , up to $20 GeV / c$ . A fivefold suppression is found, which is essentially constant for $5 < p_{T} < 20 GeV / c$ . Experimental uncertainties are small enough to constrain any model-dependent parametrization for the transport coefficient of the medium, e.g., $⟨ \hat{q} ⟩$ in the parton quenching model. The spectral shape is similar for all collision classes, and the suppression does not saturate in $Au + Au$ collisions.