High-pT paradigms revisited

We present an attempt at a critical overview of the current status of modeling for high-pT processes in nuclei. The paper covers several topics including coherence phenomena, in particular gluon shadowing and CGC; nuclear effects related to the restrictions imposed by energy conservation at large xL and xT ; space-time development of hadronization of highly virtual light and heavy partons and the related time scales; and the role of early production and subsequent attenuation of pre-hadrons in a dense medium. We identify several intriguing problems in the current paradigms for high-pT processes and propose solutions for some of them.