Study of jet quenching in an asymmetric system of ultrarelativistic Cu + Au nuclei using neutral pions in the PHENIX experiment

An asymmetric system of colliding copper and gold nuclei (Cu + Au) has a specific overlap geometry when compared to symmetric systems (Au + Au, Cu + Cu). Studying asymmetric heavy systems allows us to obtain additional restrictions for existing models and more accurate descriptions of the processes of parton energy loss in hot and dense QCD matter produced in collisions of heavy nuclei. This work reports nuclear modification factors for neutral pions in Cu + Au, Сu + Cu, and Au + Au collisions at an energy of 200 GeV, measured in the PHENIX experiment on the RHIC.