Pseudorapidity density of charged particles in p-Pb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 5.02 TeV

Abstract

The charged-particle pseudorapidity density measured over 4 units of pseudorapidity in non-single-diffractive (NSD) p-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV is presented. The average value at midrapidity is measured to be 16.81±0.71 (syst.), which corresponds to 2.14±0.17 (syst.) per participating nucleon. This is 16% lower than in NSD pp collisions interpolated to the same collision energy, and 84% higher than in d-Au collisions at sNN−−−√=0.2 TeV. The measured pseudorapidity density in p-Pb collisions is compared to model predictions, and provides new constraints on the description of particle production in high-energy nuclear collisions.