The Nuclear Modification Factor at Large Rapidities

RHIC data on high-$p_T$ hadron production display strong suppression in a wide rapidity region, indicating strong induced energy loss for both transversally and longitudinally traveling partons. We investigate the interplay of energy loss and rapidity dependence in a perturbative QCD improved parton model, and estimate the opacity of the produced hot matter in $AuAu$ collisions at energies $\sqrt{s}=200$ $A$GeV and 63 $A$GeV at different rapidity values. Direction-dependent suppression offers the possibility to study the geometry of the hot matter.