Nuclear geometry effect and transport coefficient in semi-inclusive lepton-production of hadrons off nuclei

Abstract

Hadron production in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of leptons from nuclei is an ideal tool to determine and constrain the transport coefficient in cold nuclear matter. The leading-order computations for hadron multiplicity ratios are performed by means of the SW quenching weights and the analytic parameterizations of quenching weights based on BDMPS formalism. The theoretical results are compared to the HERMES positively charged pions production data with the quarks hadronization occurring outside the nucleus. With considering the nuclear geometry effect on hadron production, our predictions are in good agreement with the experimental measurements. The extracted transport parameter from the global fit is shown to be $\hat{q} = 0.74\pm0.03 GeV^2/fm$ for the SW quenching weight without the finite energy corrections. As for the analytic parameterization of BDMPS quenching weight without the quark energy E dependence, the computed transport coefficient is $\hat{q} = 0.20\pm0.02 GeV^2/fm$. It is found that the nuclear geometry effect has a significant impact on the transport coefficient in cold nuclear matter. It is necessary to consider the detailed nuclear geometry in studying the semi-inclusive hadron production in deep inelastic scattering on nuclear targets.