Hadron production in pp and p-Pb collisions: A mass dependent phenomenon

TL;DR

This paper investigates how hadron production in pp and p-Pb collisions at LHC energies depends on hadron mass, revealing a mass-dependent pattern influenced by quark deconfinement and coalescence effects.

Contribution

It introduces an empirical function describing mass-dependent yield ratios, highlighting mass as the key factor in hadron production variations.

Findings

Yield ratios depend solely on hadron and valence quark masses.

Quark deconfinement increases with event multiplicity.

Heavier hadrons are favored in production at higher multiplicities.

Abstract

The mass dependence plays a significant role in the yield enhancement or suppression of hadrons in pp and p-Pb collisions at the LHC energies. This has been observed by parameterizing the variation of yield ratios between any two hadrons with event charged-particle multiplicity using a single empirical function. We notice that this variation is independent of all quantum numbers and solely depends on masses of hadrons and masses of their valence quarks. The function shows that the amount of quark deconfinement increases with event multiplicity, and the quark coalescence favours more the production of heavier hadrons compared to lighter ones.