Abstract
We discuss hadron production in the forward rapidity region in ultraperipheral proton-lead collisions at the LHC and proton-gold collisions at RHIC. Our discussion is based on the Monte Carlo simulations of the interactions of virtual photons emitted by a fast moving nucleus with a proton beam. We simulate the virtual photon flux with the STARLIGHT event generator and then particle production with the SOPHIA, DPMJET, and PYTHIA event generators. We show the rapidity distributions of charged and neutral particles, and the momentum distributions of neutral pions and neutrons at forward rapidities. According to the Monte Carlo simulations, we find large cross sections of ultraperipheral collisions for particle production especially in the very forward region, leading to substantial background contributions to investigations of collective nuclear effects and spin physics. Finally we can distinguish between proton-nucleus inelastic interactions and ultraperipheral collisions with additional requirements of either of the charged particles at midrapidity and a certain level of activities at negative forward rapidity.
Highlights
High-energy p + A collisions can be classified into the following two categories depending on the impact parameter b
We present a hadron production study in the forward rapidity region in ultra-peripheral proton–lead ( p +Pb) collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and proton–gold ( p + Au) collisions at RHIC
The simulation consists of two stages: the starlight event generator simulates the virtual photon flux, which is coupled to the sophia, dpmjet, and pythia event generators for the simulation of particle production
Summary
High-energy p + A collisions can be classified into the following two categories depending on the impact parameter b. [4], only the cross section for UPCs was presented, and the discussion of the rapidity and momentum distributions of the UPC induced events was neglected. We discuss the effects of particle production by γ + p interaction in ultra-peripheral p+ A collisions compared to the measurements of hadronic interactions in terms of the rapidity and momentum distributions, especially in forward rapidity regions at the LHC and the BNL Relativistic. The subsequent particle production in γ + p interactions is simulated by the sophia [11,12], dpmjet [13,14], and pythia [15,16] event generators. 3, we discuss the simulation results in terms of the rapidity and momentum distributions, where the hadron production in UPCs is compared to that in hadronic interactions.
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