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Probing fluctuating protons using forward neutrons in soft and hard inelastic proton-nucleus scattering

M. Alvioli1,2, V. Guzey3,4, and M. Strikman5

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Phys. Rev. C 112, 034901 – Published 2 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jxyf-8xvm

Abstract

We present a model for the distribution of the number of forward neutrons emitted in soft (minimum bias) and hard inelastic proton-nucleus (pA) scattering at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. It is based on the Gribov-Glauber model for the distribution over the number of inelastic collisions (wounded nucleons) combined with a parametrization of cross section (color) fluctuations in the projectile proton, which depend on the parton momentum fraction xp, and the assumption of independent neutron emissions. We observe that, while the effect of soft color fluctuations is modest, a reduction of the interaction strength with increasing xp provides the dominant effect. It allows us to qualitatively describe the trend of the ATLAS data on the zero degree calorimeter (ZDC) energy spectra of forward neutrons emitted in dijet production in inelastic pA scattering at sNN=8.16 TeV.

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Phys. Rev. C 112, 034901– Published 2 September, 2025
  • Received 11 April 2025
  • Accepted 15 August 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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