Heavy Ions at the LHC: First results vs. selected predictions

Abstract

The energy dependence of charged-hadron production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is investigated in a nonequilibrium-statistical relativistic diffusion model (RDM) with three sources. Theoretical pseudorapidity distributions are compared with Au + Au data at RHIC energies of p sNN = 0.13 and 0.2 TeV, and computed for Pb + Pb central collisions at LHC energies of 2.76 and 5.52 TeV. The nearly equilibrated source at midrapidity arising from gluon-gluon collisions becomes the major origin of particle production at LHC energies. The midrapidity dip is determined by the interplay of the three sources.