Estimates of hadron azimuthal anisotropy from multiparton interactions in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 14 TeV

TL;DR

This paper estimates the potential elliptic flow in proton-proton collisions at 14 TeV at the LHC, suggesting that collective effects are small, below 3%, based on models scaled from heavy ion collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate azimuthal anisotropy in p-p collisions using Glauber models and scaling from heavy ion data, providing new insights into collective effects in small systems.

Findings

Elliptic flow v2 in p-p collisions is below 3%.

Eccentricity and particle density scalings from heavy ion collisions are applicable.

Proton transverse profiles influence the estimated flow values.

Abstract

We estimate the amount of collective "elliptic flow" expected at mid-rapidity in proton-proton (p-p) collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), assuming that any possible azimuthal anisotropy of the produced hadrons with respect to the plane of the reaction follows the same overlap-eccentricity and particle-density scalings as found in high-energy heavy ion collisions. Using a Glauber eikonal model, we compute the p-p eccentricities, transverse areas and particle-multiplicities for various phenomenological parametrisations of the proton spatial density. For realistic proton transverse profiles, we find integrated elliptic flow v2 parameters below 3% in p-p collisions at sqrt(s) = 14 TeV.