A systematic expansion of the induced inclusive gluon radiation associated with jet production in a dense QCD plasma is derived using a reaction operator formalism. Analytic expressions for the transverse momentum and light-cone momentum distributions are derived to all orders in powers of the gluon opacity of the medium, N σg/A = L/λg. The reaction operator approach also leads to a simple algebraic proof of the "color triviality" of single inclusive distributions and to a solvable set of recursion relations. The analytic solution generalizes previous continuum solutions (BDMPS) for applications to mesoscopic QCD plasmas. The solution is furthermore not restricted to uncorrelated geometries and allows for evolving screening scales as well as the inclusion of finite kinematic constraints. The later is particularly important because below LHC energies the kinematic constraints significantly decrease the non-abelian energy loss. Our solution for the inclusive distribution also generalizes the finite order exclusive (tagged) distribution case studied previously (GLV1). The form of the analytic solution is well suited for numerical implementation in Monte Carlo event generators to enable more accurate calculations of jet quenching in ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions. Numerical results illustrating the constributions of the first three orders in opacity are compared to the "self-quenching" hard radiation intensity. A surprising result is that the induced gluon radiation intensity is dominated by the (quadratic in L) first order opacity contribution for realistic geometries and jet energies in nuclear collisions.

A systematic expansion in opacity, L/λ, is used to clarify the non-linear behavior of induced gluon radiation in quark-gluon plasmas. The inclusive differential gluon distribution is calculated up to second order in opacity and compared to the zeroth order (factorization) limit. The opacity expansion makes it possible to take finite kinematic constraints into account that suppress jet quenching in nuclear collisions below RHIC ( √ s = 200 AGeV) energies.

This report reviews the study of open heavy-flavour and quarkonium production in high-energy hadronic collisions, as tools to investigate fundamental aspects of Quantum Chromodynamics, from the proton and nucleus structure at high energy to deconfinement and the properties of the Quark–Gluon Plasma. Emphasis is given to the lessons learnt from LHC Run 1 results, which are reviewed in a global picture with the results from SPS and RHIC at lower energies, as well as to the questions to be addressed in the future. The report covers heavy flavour and quarkonium production in proton–proton, proton–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions. This includes discussion of the effects of hot and cold strongly interacting matter, quarkonium photoproduction in nucleus–nucleus collisions and perspectives on the study of heavy flavour and quarkonium with upgrades of existing experiments and new experiments. The report results from the activity of the SaporeGravis network of the I3 Hadron Physics programme of the European Union 7 Framework Programme.

The interplay of nuclear effects on the pT > 2 GeV inclusive hadron spectra in d + Au and Au + Au reactions at √ s NN = 17, 200, 5500 GeV is compared to leading order perturbative QCD calculations for elementary p + p (p + p) collisions. The competition between nuclear shadowing, Cronin effect, and jet energy loss due to medium-induced gluon radiation is predicted to lead to a striking energy dependence of the nuclear suppression/enhancement pattern in A + A reactions. We show that future d + Au data can used to disentangle the initial and final state effects.