Relativistic Hydrodynamic Modeling of Particle Production Cascades in Asymmetric Proton-Lead Collisions

International Journal of Physics | Vol. 5, No. 9, September 2014 | pp. 65–72

DOI: 10.46882/2014/IJP/000053

Research Article

Title: Relativistic Hydrodynamic Modeling of Particle Production Cascades in Asymmetric Proton-Lead Collisions

Names of Authors: H. L. Mueller¹, A. O. Awosika²

Authors’ Affiliations: ¹Institut für Kernphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany; ²Department of Physics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 200005, Nigeria

Abstract: Asymmetric proton-lead (p-Pb) collisions provide a crucial baseline for isolating cold nuclear matter effects from the collective signature of the quark-gluon plasma. This study presents a relativistic hydrodynamic modeling framework to simulate particle production cascades in p-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair. We utilized a 3+1 dimensional viscous hydrodynamic code coupled with a statistical hadronization module to compute transverse momentum spectra and azimuthal anisotropy coefficients. The initial energy density profiles were generated using a Glauber-Gribov color-fluctuation model to capture sub-nucleon scale configurations. The numerical simulations show that expanding systems build a substantial radial flow profile, which shifts the mean transverse momentum of protons up to 1.45 GeV/c in high-multiplicity events. The calculated elliptic flow coefficient (v²) displays a strong mass-ordering effect, which matches experimental measurements gathered by the ALICE detector within a tight ±6.0% margin. This close agreement suggests that small-scale systems generated in p-Pb collisions can achieve brief hydrodynamic collective expansion. These findings help clarify the boundaries of fluid-like behavior in high-energy subatomic particle interactions.

Keywords: Relativistic hydrodynamics; particle production; proton-lead collisions; elliptic flow; color-fluctuation model; statistical hadronization

Manuscript Timeline: Received: May 20, 2014; Revised: July 11, 2014; Accepted: August 02, 2014; Published: September 15, 2014

Citation: Mueller, H. L., & Awosika, A. O. (2014). Relativistic Hydrodynamic Modeling of Particle Production Cascades in Asymmetric Proton-Lead Collisions. International Journal of Physics, 5(9), 65–72.

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