Single string structure and multiple string interaction effect on strange particle production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV

TL;DR

This study uses PACIAE simulations to explore how single string structures and multiple string interactions influence strange particle production in 7 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC, highlighting the role of variable string tension.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation approach incorporating variable effective string tension to better match experimental data on strangeness enhancement in high multiplicity pp events.

Findings

Increased effective string tension improves agreement with LHC data.

Variable string tension explains multiplicity dependence of strangeness.

Enhanced strange particle yields observed in simulations.

Abstract

We present a systematic study on the strange particle production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in proton-proton (pp) collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 7 TeV based on PACIAE simulations. Two different mechanisms accounting for single string structure variations and multiple string interactions are implemented in the simulations. These modifications give rise to increased effective string tension in the Lund fragmentation model and generate more strange particles in the hadronic final state. By comparing the results with a wealth of the LHC data, it is turned out that the inclusion of variable effective string tension is capable to reach an improved agreement between theory and experiment, especially on the recently observed multiplicity dependence of strangeness enhancement in pp collisions. This approach provides us a new method to understand the microscopic picture of the novel high multiplicity pp events collected at the LHC in the string fragmentation framework.