The physics potential of proton-nucleus collisions at the TeV scale

Carlos A. Salgado

Published 2011-08-27Version 1

The LHC brings nuclear collisions to the TeV scale for the first time and the first data show the qualitative differences of this new regime. The corresponding phase-space available encompasses completely uncharted regions of QCD in which high-density or high-temperature domains can be identified. Proton-nucleus runs are essential for a complete interpretation of the data and for the study of new regimes dominated by large occupation numbers in the hadronic wave function. I comment here the physics opportunities for p+Pb runs at the LHC and d+Au runs at RHIC and the corresponding needs in view of the new Pb+Pb data from the LHC.