Large-pₜ Inclusive π⁰ Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions at RHIC and LHC

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We present results for the large-pₜ inclusive π⁰ production in p-p and A-A collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. We include the full next-to-leading order radiative corrections, O(αₛ³), 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 pₜ dependent, while the nuclear shadowing effects are small (< 10%). We calculate the ratio of prompt photons to neutral pions produced in heavy ion collisions and show that at RHIC energies this ratio increases with pₜ approaching one at pₜ 8 GeV, due to the large suppression of π⁰ production. We show that at the LHC, this ratio has a steep pₜ dependence and approaches 25% effect at pₜ 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.