Soft QCD measurements in the forward direction with the LHCb experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports on measurements of particle production in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV using the LHCb detector, focusing on strangeness, baryon ratios, and charged particles, highlighting the unique forward-region insights.

Contribution

It provides novel measurements of soft QCD phenomena in the forward region, leveraging LHCb's unique capabilities to complement central detector results.

Findings

Measurements of strangeness production and particle ratios.

Comparison with theoretical predictions shows good agreement.

Highlights the importance of forward-region data for QCD understanding.

Abstract

LHCb presents studies of particle production in minimum bias events in pp collisions at \sqrt{s} = 7 TeV. These studies include measurements of strangeness production, particle ratios, baryon-antibaryon ratios and charged particle production. The forward coverage and low pT acceptance of the experiment makes these measurements very complementary to those performed by the central detectors at the LHC. Further benefits arise from the powerful particle identification capabilities provided by the LHCb RICH system. The measurements are compared with theoretical predictions.