Abstract
Since large-pT particles in high-energy hadronic or nuclear collisions come from jet fragmentation, jet quenching due to parton energy loss in dense matter will cause the suppression of large-pT hadron spectra in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. Assuming an effective energy loss dE/dx for the high-ET partons, effective jet fragmentation functions are constructed in which leading hadrons will be suppressed. Using such effective fragmentation functions, high-pT hadron spectra and particle suppression factors relative to pp collisions are estimated in central high-energy nuclear collisions with a given range of the assumed dE/dx. It is found that the suppression factors are very sensitive to the value of the effective energy loss. Systematic nuclear and flavor dependence of the hadron spectra are also studied.