We present the first systematic comparison of the charged-particle pseudorapidity densities for three widely different collision systems, pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb, at the top energy of the Large Hadron Collider ($\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV) measured over a wide pseudorapidity range (${-3.5 <\eta <5}$), the widest possible among the four experiments at that facility. The systematic uncertainties are minimised since the measurements are recorded by the same experimental apparatus (ALICE). The distributions for p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions are determined as a function of the centrality of the collisions, while results from pp collisions are reported for inelastic events with at least one charged particle at midrapidity. The charged-particle pseudorapidity densities are, under simple and robust assumptions, transformed to charged-particle rapidity densities. This allows for the calculation and the presentation of the evolution of the width of the rapidity distributions and of a lower bound on the Bjorken energy density, as a function of the number of participants in all three collision systems. We find a decreasing width of the particle production, and roughly a smooth ten fold increase in the energy density, as the system size grows, which is consistent with a gradually higher dense phase of matter.
$\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}\eta}$ versus $\eta$ for $x^{\pm}$ in $\mathrm{p}\mathrm{p}$ at $\sqrt{s}=5.023\,\mathrm{Te\!V}$
$\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}\eta}$ versus $\eta$ for $x^{\pm}$ in $\mathrm{p}-\mathrm{Pb}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.023\,\mathrm{Te\!V}$
$\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}\eta}$ versus $\eta$ for $x^{\pm}$ in $\mathrm{Pb}-\mathrm{Pb}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.023\,\mathrm{Te\!V}$
We present charged particle densities as a function of pseudorapidity and collision centrality for the 197Au+197Au reaction at sqrt{s_{NN}}=130 GeV. An integral charged particle multiplicity of 3860+/-300 is found for the 5% most central events within the pseudorapidity range -4.7 <= eta <= 4.7. At mid-rapidity an enhancement in the particle yields per participant nucleon pair is observed for central events. Near to the beam rapidity, a scaling of the particle yields consistent with the ``limiting fragmentation'' picture is observed. Our results are compared to other recent experimental and theoretical discussions of charged particle densities in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
NPART, $\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}\eta$, $N_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{tot}}$ versus $\mathrm{Centrality}$ for $x^{\pm}$ in $\mathrm{Au}-\mathrm{Au}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=130\,\mathrm{Ge\!V}$
$\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}\eta$ versus $\eta$ for $x^{\pm}$ in $\mathrm{Au}-\mathrm{Au}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=130\,\mathrm{Ge\!V}$
$\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}\eta$ versus $\eta$ for $x^{\pm}$ in $\mathrm{Au}-\mathrm{Au}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=130\,\mathrm{Ge\!V}$
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