Centrality bias study for charged-particle nuclear modification factor in pPb and PbPb collisions using the ANGANTYR model at √(S_NN)=5.02 TeV

Relativistic heavy ion collisions of sufficiently high energy produce quark-gluon plasma (QGP). QGP dynamics can be described macroscopically using hydrodynamics. Medium effects on the production of high-p_T particles in nucleus-nucleus (AA) collisions are generally quantified by the charged particle nuclear modification factor (R_AA), defined to be unity in the absence of nuclear effects. Using the ANGANTYR model, we ignore the macroscopic behavior of QGP and instead directly extrapolate high energy pp collisions to heavy ion collisions. With this model we study R_AA in PbPb and pPb collisions at √(S_NN)=5.02 TeV. Despite the exclusion of medium effects, we find reduced R_AA across centrality bins, consistent with CMS data.