Average transverse momentum of hadrons in proton–nucleus collisions in the wounded nucleon model

Abstract

In the wounded nucleon model, a proton–nucleus (p+A) collision is a superposition of independent nucleon–nucleon collisions. We use this model to calculate the average transverse momentum of pions, kaons and protons in high energy p+A collisions. For the same number of produced particles, because the number of participants differs, in the wounded nucleon model the transverse momentum of hadrons can differ between p+p and p+A collisions. In this model we find that the average transverse momentum in high multiplicity p+A collisions depends weakly on the number of produced particles, and underestimates the preliminary experimental data at the LHC. The difference is small for pions and greater for kaons and protons. The magnitude of this difference is consistent with hydrodynamic expectations.