Light Meson Production in Heavy Ion Collisions in the PHENIX Experiment

Production of a strongly interacting quark−gluon plasma (QGP) has been established in central heavy ion collisions during the studies carried out at the RHIC collider. The experiments on interactions of asymmetric nuclei (Cu + Au, U + U) provide the means to study systematically a jet quenching effect, which is a signature of QGP formation. In this paper, the factors of nuclear modification of π0 and η mesons in Cu + Au and U + U collisions at 200 GeV measured in the PHENIX experiment at RHIC are presented.