Particle multiplicities in Lead-Lead collisions at the LHC from non-linear evolution with running coupling
Abstract
Description
We present predictions for the pseudo-rapidity density of charged particles produced in central Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC. Particle production in such collisions is calculated in the framework of k_t-factorization. The nuclear unintegrated gluon distributions at LHC energies are determined from numerical solutions of the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation including recently calculated running coupling corrections. The initial conditions for the evolution are fixed by fitting RHIC data at collision energies \sqrt{s}}=130 and 200 GeV per nucleon. We obtain dN^{Pb-Pb}_{ch}/dη(\sqrt{s}=5.5 TeV, η=0)\approx 1290÷1480.
Version accepted for publication by Phys. Rev. Lett. Typos corrected, one figure removed and references updated
Version accepted for publication by Phys. Rev. Lett. Typos corrected, one figure removed and references updated