Role of gluons in soft and semi-hard multiple hadron production in pp collisions at LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gluons influence soft and semi-hard hadron production in proton-proton collisions at LHC energies, extending a quark-gluon string model to better match experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces the inclusion of gluon distributions in the proton's internal structure within the model, improving the description of hadron spectra at higher energies.

Findings

Model describes light hadron spectra up to 1-2 GeV/c transverse momentum.

Including gluon distributions extends the model's applicability to higher energies.

The approach improves agreement with experimental data at LHC energies.

Abstract

Hadron inclusive spectra in pp collisions are analyzed within the modified quark-gluon string model including both the longitudinal and transverse motion of quarks in the proton in the wide region of initial energies. The self-consistent analysis shows that the experimental data on the inclusive spectra of light hadrons like pions and kaons at ISR energies can be satisfactorily described at transverse momenta not larger than 1-2 GeV/c. We discuss some difficulties to apply this model at energies above the ISR and suggest to include the distribution of gluons in the proton unintegrated over the internal transverse momentum. It leads to an increase in the inclusive spectra of hadrons and allows us to extend the satisfactory description of the data in the central rapidity region at energies higher than ISR.