Nuclear like effects in proton-proton collisions at high energy

TL;DR

This paper argues that several effects traditionally considered nuclear phenomena, such as pT suppression, elliptic flow, and Cronin effect, also occur in high-energy proton-proton collisions due to the formation of a high-density partonic medium.

Contribution

It demonstrates that effects like pT suppression, elliptic flow, and Cronin effect are not exclusive to nuclear collisions but also appear in proton-proton collisions at LHC energies.

Findings

pT suppression occurs in high-multiplicity pp events

Elliptic flow is predicted in pp collisions at LHC energies

Cronin effect is also present in proton-proton collisions

Abstract

We show that several effects considered nuclear effects are not nuclear in the sense that they do not only occur in nucleus-nucleus and hadron-nucleus collisions but, as well, they are present in hadron-hadron (proton-proton) collisions. The matter creation mechanism in hh, hA and AA collisions is always the same. The pT suppression of particles produced in large multiplicity events compared to low multiplicity events, the elliptic flow and the Cronin effect are predicted to occur in pp collisions at LHC energies as a consequence of the obtained high density partonic medium.