The influence of the inverse Compton effect on the transverse momentum spectra of particles produced in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=14 TeV

TL;DR

This study investigates how the inverse Compton effect influences the transverse momentum spectra of particles in high-energy proton-proton collisions, using PYTHIA simulations to analyze energy redistribution mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a method to distinguish inverse Compton scattering events from Compton-like events in proton-proton collisions at 14 TeV, highlighting their impact on particle spectra.

Findings

Inverse Compton events cause a moderate increase in particle yield.

The ratio of ICE to DCE spectra is approximately 1.1 and remains constant.

No significant broadening of the transverse momentum spectra observed.

Abstract

The influence of the QED-analog of the inverse Compton effect on the transverse momentum spectra of particles produced in proton-proton collisions at energies of \sqrt{s}=14 TeV has been investigated. The analysis is based on the quark-gluon scattering process g + q --> g + q, which is the QCD analogue of Compton scattering of a photon on an electron and can lead to energy redistribution between partons, analogous to the mechanism of the inverse Compton effect. Data obtained numerically using the PYTHIA event generator (version 8.316) were used. A total of 5*10^5 proton-proton collisions at \sqrt{s}=14 TeV were analyzed. Events were classified based on the relative energies of the initial quark and gluon, which allowed us to distinguish Compton scattering (DCE) events from inverse Compton scattering (ICE) events. Particle transverse momentum spectra were obtained in the region: p_{T} < 10 GeV/c. The results showed that including inverse Compton scattering events in the analysis leads to a moderate increase in particle yield. The ratio of the spectra for ICE and DCE events remains approximately constant and is about 1.1 within statistical errors. No significant broadening of the transverse momentum spectra is observed. These results show that proton-proton collisions can serve as a reliable baseline for studies of energy redistribution mechanisms in a dense QCD medium, such as quark-gluon plasma.