Proton-nucleus collisions at LHC energy in the Monte Carlo model

TL;DR

This paper applies a Monte Carlo model to proton-lead collisions at LHC energies, highlighting differences from Glauber model predictions by incorporating energy conservation and partonic interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a Monte Carlo approach for p-Pb collisions that accounts for energy conservation and partonic interactions, diverging from traditional Glauber assumptions.

Findings

Number of participating nucleons is lower with energy conservation.

Charged multiplicity predictions align with experimental data.

Centrality determination methods significantly affect observables.

Abstract

A Monte Carlo model, initially developed for soft pp and AA collisions at high energy, is applied for proton-lead interaction at the LHC energy. Elementary collisions are implemented at the partonic level and do not involve the usual Glauber supposition of independent nucleon-nucleon collisions. The average number of participating nucleons and charged multiplicity in p-Pb collisions were calculated and compared with the predictions of Glauber model and experimental data. It was demonstrated that taking into account the energy conservation results in the number of participating nucleons considerably lower than in the Glauber approach. Different ways of centrality determination in pA are discussed and the influence of the methods of centrality definition on mean observables and their variances is studied.