Multiplicity fluctuations and rapidity correlations in ultracentral proton-nucleus collisions

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Samanta, Rupam, Ollitrault, Jean-Yves
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910537599680512
author Samanta, Rupam
Ollitrault, Jean-Yves
author_facet Samanta, Rupam
Ollitrault, Jean-Yves
contents A collision between a proton and a heavy nucleus at ultrarelativistic energy creates particles whose rapidity distribution is asymmetric, with more particles emitted in the direction of the nucleus than in the direction of the proton. This asymmetry becomes more pronounced as the centrality estimator, defined from the energy deposited in a calorimeter, increases. We argue that for high-multiplicity collisions, the variation of the impact parameter plays a negligible role, and that the fluctuations of the multiplicity and of the centrality estimator are dominated by quantum fluctuations, whose probability distribution can be well approximated by a correlated gamma distribution. We show that this simple model reproduces existing data, and we make quantitative predictions for collisions in the $0-0.1\%$ and $0-0.01\%$ centrality windows. We argue that by repeating the same analysis with a different centrality estimator, one can obtain direct information about the rapidity decorrelation in particle production.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_14671
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multiplicity fluctuations and rapidity correlations in ultracentral proton-nucleus collisions
Samanta, Rupam
Ollitrault, Jean-Yves
Nuclear Theory
Nuclear Experiment
A collision between a proton and a heavy nucleus at ultrarelativistic energy creates particles whose rapidity distribution is asymmetric, with more particles emitted in the direction of the nucleus than in the direction of the proton. This asymmetry becomes more pronounced as the centrality estimator, defined from the energy deposited in a calorimeter, increases. We argue that for high-multiplicity collisions, the variation of the impact parameter plays a negligible role, and that the fluctuations of the multiplicity and of the centrality estimator are dominated by quantum fluctuations, whose probability distribution can be well approximated by a correlated gamma distribution. We show that this simple model reproduces existing data, and we make quantitative predictions for collisions in the $0-0.1\%$ and $0-0.01\%$ centrality windows. We argue that by repeating the same analysis with a different centrality estimator, one can obtain direct information about the rapidity decorrelation in particle production.
title Multiplicity fluctuations and rapidity correlations in ultracentral proton-nucleus collisions
topic Nuclear Theory
Nuclear Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.14671