Production of pi(0) and eta mesons in Cu plus Au collisions at root S-NN=200 GeV

Abstract

Production of pi(0) and eta mesons has been measured at midrapidity in Cu+Au collisions at root S-NN = 200 GeV. Measurements were performed in pi(0) (eta) -> gamma gamma decay channel in the 1(2)-20 GeV/c transverse momentum range. A strong suppression is observed for pi(0) and eta meson production at high transverse momentum in central Cu+Au collisions relative to the p + p results scaled by the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. In central collisions the suppression is similar to Au + Au with comparable nuclear overlap. The eta/pi(0) ratio measured as a function of transverse momentum is consistent with m(T)-scaling parametrization down to p(T) = 2 GeV/c, its asymptotic value is constant and consistent with Au + Au and p + p and does not show any significant dependence on collision centrality. Similar results were obtained in hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions as well as in e(+)e(-) collisions in a range of collision energies root S-NN = 3-1800 GeV. This suggests that the quark-gluon-plasma medium produced in Cu+Cu collisions either does not affect the jet fragmentation into light mesons or it affects the pi(0) and eta the same way.