Abstract

We investigate the azimuthal asymmetry of partons and photons produced at the initial stage of nuclear collisions at the RHIC energy originating from quark-nucleus collisions. In our approach, the azimuthal asymmetry results from the correlation between color dipole orientation and impact parameter of the collision. The asymmetry is sensitive to the rapid variation of the nuclear density at the nuclear periphery. We either introduce the color-dipole orientation into the improved Born approximation, or model the dipole partial amplitude which satisfies available DIS data. We conclude that the azimuthal asymmetry coming from these mechanisms can be sizable. © American Institute of Physics.