Charged particle multiplicities are studied in proton-proton collisions in the forward region at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 7\;$TeV with data collected by the LHCb detector. The forward spectrometer allows access to a kinematic range of $2.0<\eta<4.8$ in pseudorapidity, momenta down to $2\;$GeV/$c$ and transverse momenta down to $0.2\;$GeV/$c$. The measurements are performed using minimum-bias events with at least one charged particle in the kinematic acceptance. The results are presented as functions of pseudorapidity and transverse momentum and are compared to predictions from several Monte Carlo event generators.
The production of prompt charged particles in proton-lead collisions and in proton-proton collisions at the nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy ${\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle\mathrm{NN}}}=5\,\mathrm{TeV}}$ is studied at LHCb as a function of pseudorapidity ($\eta$) and transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) with respect to the proton beam direction. The nuclear modification factor for charged particles is determined as a function of $\eta$ between ${-4.8<\eta<-2.5}$ (backward region) and ${2.0<\eta<4.8}$ (forward region), and $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ between ${0.2<p_{\mathrm{T}}<8.0\,\mathrm{GeV}/c}$. The results show a suppression of charged particle production in proton-lead collisions relative to proton-proton collisions in the forward region and an enhancement in the backward region for $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ larger than $1.5\,\mathrm{GeV}/c$. This measurement constrains nuclear PDFs and saturation models at previously unexplored values of the parton momentum fraction down to $10^{-6}$.
The energy flow created in pp collisions at is studied within the pseudorapidity range 1.9<η<4.9 with data collected by the LHCb experiment. The measurements are performed for inclusive minimum-bias interactions, hard scattering processes and events with an enhanced or suppressed diffractive contribution. The results are compared to predictions given by Pythia-based and cosmic-ray event generators, which provide different models of soft hadronic interactions.
The charged particle production in proton-proton collisions is studied with the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of ${\sqrt{s} =7}$TeV in different intervals of pseudorapidity $\eta$. The charged particles are reconstructed close to the interaction region in the vertex detector, which provides high reconstruction efficiency in the $\eta$ ranges $-2.5<\eta<-2.0$ and $2.0<\eta<4.5$. The data were taken with a minimum bias trigger, only requiring one or more reconstructed tracks in the vertex detector. By selecting an event sample with at least one track with a transverse momentum greater than 1 GeV/c a hard QCD subsample is investigated. Several event generators are compared with the data; none are able to describe fully the multiplicity distributions or the charged particle density distribution as a function of $\eta$. In general, the models underestimate the charged particle production.
A search for highly ionising, penetrating particles with electric charges from |q| = 2e to 6e is performed using the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Proton-proton collision data taken at $\sqrt{s}$=7 TeV during the 2011 running period, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb$^{-1}$, are analysed. No signal candidates are observed, and 95% confidence level cross-section upper limits are interpreted as mass-exclusion lower limits for a simplified Drell--Yan production model. In this model, masses are excluded from 50 GeV up to 430, 480, 490, 470 and 420 GeV for charges 2e, 3e, 4e, 5e and 6e, respectively.
Multi-particle cumulants and corresponding Fourier harmonics are measured for azimuthal angle distributions of charged particles in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 and 13 TeV and in $p$+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV, and compared to the results obtained for low-multiplicity Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV. These measurements aim to assess the collective nature of particle production. The measurements of multi-particle cumulants confirm the evidence for collective phenomena in $p$+Pb and low-multiplicity Pb+Pb collisions. On the other hand, the $pp$ results for four-particle cumulants do not demonstrate collective behaviour, indicating that they may be biased by contributions from non-flow correlations. A comparison of multi-particle cumulants and derived Fourier harmonics across different collision systems is presented as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity. For a given multiplicity, the measured Fourier harmonics are largest in Pb+Pb, smaller in $p$+Pb and smallest in $pp$ collisions. The $pp$ results show no dependence on the collision energy, nor on the multiplicity.
This paper describes measurements of the sum of the transverse energy of particles as a function of particle pseudorapidity, eta, in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy, sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are performed in the region |eta| < 4.8 for two event classes: those requiring the presence of particles with a low transverse momentum and those requiring particles with a significant transverse momentum. In the second dataset measurements are made in the region transverse to the hard scatter. The distributions are compared to the predictions of various Monte Carlo event generators, which generally tend to underestimate the amount of transverse energy at high |eta|.
Jets are identified and their properties studied in center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider using charged particles measured by the ATLAS inner detector. Events are selected using a minimum bias trigger, allowing jets at very low transverse momentum to be observed and their characteristics in the transition to high-momentum fully perturbative jets to be studied. Jets are reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm applied to charged particles with two radius parameter choices, 0.4 and 0.6. An inclusive charged jet transverse momentum cross section measurement from 4 GeV to 100 GeV is shown for four ranges in rapidity extending to 1.9 and corrected to charged particle-level truth jets. The transverse momenta and longitudinal momentum fractions of charged particles within jets are measured, along with the charged particle multiplicity and the particle density as a function of radial distance from the jet axis. Comparison of the data with the theoretical models implemented in existing tunings of Monte Carlo event generators indicates reasonable overall agreement between data and Monte Carlo. These comparisons are sensitive to Monte Carlo parton showering, hadronization, and soft physics models.
We present charged-particle distributions sensitive to the underlying event, measured by the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, in low-luminosity Large Hadron Collider fills corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.6 nb$^{-1}$. The distributions were constructed using charged particles with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.5 and with transverse momentum greater than 500 MeV, in events with at least one such charged particle with transverse momentum above 1 GeV. These distributions characterise the angular distribution of energy and particle flows with respect to the charged particle with highest transverse momentum, as a function of both that momentum and of charged-particle multiplicity. The results have been corrected for detector effects and are compared to the predictions of various Monte Carlo event generators, experimentally establishing the level of underlying-event activity at LHC Run 2 energies and providing inputs for the development of event generator modelling. The current models in use for UE modelling typically describe this data to 5% accuracy, compared with data uncertainties of less than 1%.
Distributions sensitive to the underlying event are studied in events containing one or more charged-particle jets produced in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These measurements reflect 800 inverse microbarns of data taken during 2010. Jets are reconstructed using the antikt algorithm with radius parameter R varying between 0.2 and 1.0. Distributions of the charged-particle multiplicity, the scalar sum of the transverse momentum of charged particles, and the average charged-particle pT are measured as functions of pT^JET in regions transverse to and opposite the leading jet for 4 GeV < pT^JET < 100 GeV. In addition, the R-dependence of the mean values of these observables is studied. In the transverse region, both the multiplicity and the scalar sum of the transverse momentum at fixed pT^JET vary significantly with R, while the average charged-particle transverse momentum has a minimal dependence on R. Predictions from several Monte Carlo tunes have been compared to the data; the predictions from Pythia 6, based on tunes that have been determined using LHC data, show reasonable agreement with the data, including the dependence on R. Comparisons with other generators indicate that additional tuning of soft-QCD parameters is necessary for these generators. The measurements presented here provide a testing ground for further development of the Monte Carlo models.