Large-pT inclusive π0 production in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC

Abstract We present results for the large- p T inclusive π 0 production in p – p and A – A collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. We include the full next-to-leading order radiative corrections, O ( α s 3 ), and nuclear effects such as parton energy loss and nuclear shadowing. We find the next-to-leading order corrections and the parton energy loss effect to be large and p T -dependent, while the nuclear shadowing effects are small ( p T approaching one at p T ∼8 GeV, due to the large suppression of π 0 production. We show that at the LHC, this ratio has a steep p T -dependence and approaches 25% effect at p T ∼40 GeV. We discuss theoretical uncertainties inherent in our calculation, such as choice of the renormalization, factorization and fragmentation scales and the K-factors which signify the size of higher-order corrections.