Inelastic nuclear screening for different secondaries produced in p+Pb collisions at LHC energy

TL;DR

This paper models inelastic nuclear screening effects in proton-lead collisions at LHC energies, showing significant suppression of secondary particle spectra due to percolation effects, consistent with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a calculation of inelastic screening corrections in p+Pb collisions at LHC energies within the Quark-Gluon String Model, highlighting the importance of Pomeron interactions.

Findings

Spectra are reduced by more than 2 times at midrapidity at 5 TeV.

Experimental data supports the dominance of Pomeron interaction in screening effects.

Screening effects are significant at high energies, affecting secondary particle production.

Abstract

We calculate the inclusive spectra of secondaries produced in soft (minimum bias) p+Pb collisions in the framework of Quark-Gluon String Model at LHC energy, by taking into account the inelastic screening corrections (percolation effects). The role of these effects is expected to be very large at the very high energies, and they should decrease the spectra more than 2 times in the midrapidity region at sqrt(s)_(NN) = 5 TeV. The experimental data confirm such a picture, which means that the nuclear screening effects are connected with the Pomeron interaction rather than with the interactions of the produced secondary particles in the final state.