Hosted by: Jin Huang

The observation of long range correlations in highly asymmetric systems as in p+Pb and d+Au collisions suggests the creation of a medium with collective behavior. Single particle production has proven to be a valuable tool to probe the quark-gluon plasma formed in heavy ion collisions as it is sensitive to energy loss, modifications of the nuclear wavefunction. It is an open question whether the apparent medium in small-on-large collisions and the QGP in large-on-large collisions is indeed the same, as is the role of the dynamics of the projectile (nucleon) wavefunction. In order to address these questions with a systematic study of highly asymmetric collisions, the RHIC collider provided beams for p+Al, p+Au, d+Au and 3He+Au collisions. The hadron production as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and rapidity can provide us very useful information about the evolution of the initial state and medium formation with system size. We will present the neutral pion and charged hadron measurements at forward, mid- and backward rapidities and discuss the implications of the results.