CGC factorization for forward particle production in proton-nucleus collisions at next-to-leading order

Within the Color Glass Condensate effective theory, we reconsider the next-to-leading order (NLO) calculation of the single inclusive particle production at forward rapidities in proton-nucleus collisions at high energy. Focusing on quark production for definiteness, we establish a new factorization scheme, perturbatively correct through NLO, in which there is no ‘rapidity subtraction’. That is, the NLO correction to the impact factor is not explicitly separated from the high-energy evolution. Our construction exploits the skeleton structure of the (NLO) Balitsky-Kovchegov equation, in which the first step of the evolution is explicitly singled out. The NLO impact factor is included by computing this first emission with the exact kinematics for the emitted gluon, rather than by using the eikonal approximation. This particular calculation has already been presented in the literature [1, 2], but the reorganization of the perturbation theory that we propose is new. As compared to the proposal in [1, 2], our scheme is free of the fine-tuning inherent in the rapidity subtraction, which might be the origin of the negativity of the NLO cross-section observed in previous studies.