Search

We determine the temperature fluctuations associated with the Higgs boson $p_T$ spectrum through the derivation of the string tension distribution corresponding to the QCD-based Hagedorn function, frequently used to fit the transverse momentum distribution (TMD). The identified string tension fluctuations are heavy tailed, behaving similarly to the $q$-Gaussian distribution. After the convolution with the Schwinger mechanism, both approaches correctly describe the entire TMD. This approach is the onset for the nonthermal description of the particle production in ultrarelativistic pp collisions. By analyzing the data of pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} =13$ TeV, we found that the average temperature associated with the Higgs boson differential cross section is around 85 times greater than the estimated value for the charged particle TMD. Our results show that the Higgs boson production exhibits the largest deviation from the thermal description., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in PRC

We investigate the transverse momentum distribution (TMD) statistics from three different theoretical approaches. In particular, we explore the framework used for string models, wherein the particle production is given by the Schwinger mechanism. The thermal distribution arises from the Gaussian fluctuations of the string tension. The hard part of the TMD can be reproduced by considering heavy tailed string tension fluctuations, for instance, the Tsallis $q$-Gaussian function, giving rise to a confluent hypergeometric function that fits the entire experimental TMD data. We also discuss the QCD-based Hagerdon function, another family of fitting functions frequently used to describe the spectrum. We analyze the experimental data of minimum bias pp collisions reported by the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments (from $\sqrt{s}=0.2$ TeV to $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV). We extracted the corresponding temperature by studying the behavior of the spectra at low transverse momentum values. For the three approaches, we compute all moments, highlighting the average, variance, and kurtosis. Finally, we compute the Shannon entropy and the heat capacity through the entropy derivative with respect to the temperature. We found that the $q$-Gaussian string tension fluctuations lead to a monotonically increasing heat capacity as a function of the center of mass energy, which is also observed for the Hagedorn fitting function. This behavior is consistent with the experimental observation that the temperature slowly rises with increments of the collision energy., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review C

In color string models, the transverse momentum distribution (TMD) is obtained through the convolution of the Schwinger mechanism with the string tension fluctuations distribution. Considering a $q$-Gaussian distribution for these fluctuations, the TMD becomes a hypergeometric confluent function that adequately reproduces the characteristic scales at low and high $p_T$ values. In this approach, the hard scale of the TMD is a consequence of considering a heavy-tailed distribution for the string tension fluctuations whose width rises as $\sqrt{s}$, multiplicity or centrality increases. In this paper, we introduce the complete information of the TMD in the color string percolation model by means of the determination of the color suppression factor, which now also depends on the parameters of the $q$-Gaussian. To this end, we analyze the reported data on pp and AA collisions at different center of mass energies, multiplicities, and centralities. In particular, for minimum bias pp collisions, we found that the $q$-Gaussian parameters and the effective temperature are monotonically increasing functions of the center of mass energy. Similar results are found for AA collisions as a function of the centrality at fixed $\sqrt{s}$. We summarize these results in a phase diagram that indicates the $q$-Gaussian parameters region allowing the quark-gluon plasma formation., Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures

Usually, the transverse momentum distribution is described by a sum of an exponential decay term plus a decreasing power like contribution representing the soft non-perturbative and hard perturbative QCD collisions, respectively. In this paper, we derive an analytical function that can describe the whole transverse momentum spectrum. This is obtained using a $q$-Gaussian distribution to describe the string tension fluctuations. The parameter $q$ determines the departure of the thermal distribution as well as the minimum length that can be explored at high transverse momentum. We also show that the ratio between both scales only depends on the $q$ parameter., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures

We investigate the finite-size effects on the transition temperature associated with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation. From a percolation perspective, the onset of the QGP in high-energy collisions occurs when the spanning cluster of color strings emerges. The principal result presented here is the finite-size effects on the transition temperature expressed as a power law in terms of the nucleon number. We found that the transition temperature is higher for small systems than for large ones. It means that minimal triggering conditions events in pp collisions require about twenty times higher energies than AuAu-PbPb collisions. We also estimate the center of mass energy required for the QGP formation as a function of the nucleon number. Our results are consistent with the minimal center of mass energies at which the QGP has been observed., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We study the radial distribution function of the color sources (strings) formed in hadronic collisions and the requirements to obtain a liquid. As a repulsive interaction is needed, we incorporate a concentric core in the strings as well as the probability that a string allows core-core overlaps. We find systems where the difference between the gas-liquid and confined-deconfined phase transition temperatures is small. This explains the experimentally observed liquid behavior of the quark-gluon plasma above the confined-deconfined transition temperature., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, It matches the published version-typos corrected

In view of the planning experiments for collisions of light nuclei at RHIC the flow coefficients for O-O, Al-AL and Cu-Cu collisions are studied in the color string percolation model. Our results for $v_2$ are somewhat smaller than predicted by other groups although with the same dependence on centrality. Our obtained $v_3$ lie between predictions of other groups., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

We present the extraction of the temperature by analyzing the charged particle transverse momentum spectra in lead-lead (Pb-Pb) and proton-proton (${\bf pp}$) collisions at LHC energies from the ALICE Collaboration using the Color String Percolation Model (CSPM). From the measured energy density ${\bm \varepsilon}$ and the temperature T the dimensionless quantity ${\bm \varepsilon/}T^{4}$ is obtained to get the degrees of freedom (DOF), ${\bm \varepsilon}/T^{4}$ = DOF ${ \pi^{2}}$/30. We observe for the first time a two-step behavior in the increase of DOF, characteristic of deconfinement, above the hadronization temperature at temperature $\sim$ 210 MeV for both Pb-Pb and ${\bf pp}$ collisions and a sudden increase to the ideal gas value of $\sim $ 47 corresponding to three quark flavors in the case of Pb-Pb collisions., Comment: 7 pages and 4 figures

In string percolation model, the study of colliding systems at high energies is based on a continuum percolation theory in two dimensions where the number of strings distributed in the surface of interest is strongly determined by the size and the energy of the colliding particles. It is also expected that the surface where the disks are lying be finite, defining a system without periodic boundary conditions. In this work, we report modifications to the fraction of the area covered by disks in continuum percolating systems due to a finite number of disks and bounded by different geometries: circle, ellipse, triangle, square and pentagon, which correspond to the first Fourier modes of the shape fluctuation of the initial state after the particle collision. We find that the deviation of the fraction of area covered by disks from its corresponding value in the thermodynamic limit satisfies a universal behavior, where the free parameters depend on the density profile, number of disks and the shape of the boundary. Consequently, it is also found that the color suppression factor of the string percolation model is modified by a damping function related to the small-bounded effects. Corrections to the temperature and the speed of sound defined in string systems are also shown for small and elliptically bounded systems., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures

We propose a strategy based on the site-bond percolation to minimize the propagation of \textit{Phytophthora} zoospores on plantations, consisting in introducing physical barriers between neighboring plants. Two clustering processes are distinguished: i) one of cells with the presence of the pathogen, detected on soil analysis; and ii) that of diseased plants, revealed from a visual inspection of the plantation. The former is well described by the standard site-bond percolation. In the latter, the percolation threshold is fitted by a Tsallis distribution when no barriers are introduced. We provide, for both cases, the formulae for the minimal barrier density to prevent the emergence of the spanning cluster. Though this work is focused on a specific pathogen, the model presented here can also be applied to prevent the spreading of other pathogens that disseminate, by other means, from one plant to the neighboring ones. Finally, the application of this strategy to three types of commercialy important Mexican chili plants is also shown., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures

In the color string picture with fusion and percolation the elliptic and triangular flows are studied for p-Au and d-Au collisions at 200 GeV. The ordering $v_n(d-Au)>v_n(p-Au)$ observed experimentally for central collisions is reproduced.The calculated elliptic flow $v_2$ at central collisions agrees satisfactorily with thedata. The triangular flow $v_3$ is found to be greater than the experimental values, similar to the resultsobtained in the approach based on the Color Glass Condensate initial conditions with subsequenthydrodynamical evolution., Comment: 7 pages 3 pictures

A brief review of the string percolation model and its results are presented together with the comparison to experimental data. First, it is done an introduction to the quark-gluon phase diagram and the lattice results concerning the confinement and the percolation of center domains. It is studied the interaction of the strings produced in nucleus-nucleus and proton-proton collisions showing how the string percolation arises. The main consequences of the string percolation, concerning the dependence on the energy and centrality, on the multiplicities and the mean transverse momentum are obtained comparing with experimental data. It is emphasized the non-abelian character of the color field of the strings forming the cluster to reproduce the rise of the transverse momentum with multiplicity and the relative suppression of multiplicities. It is also studied different observables like multiplicity and transverse momentum distributions, dependence with multiplicity and transverse momentum correlations, forward-backward correlations, the strength of the Bose-Einstein correlations, dependence on the multiplicity of $J/\Psi$ production and its possible suppression in pp collisions at high multiplicity, strangeness enhancement, elliptic flow, and ridge structure. The comparison with the data shows an overall agreement. The thermodynamical properties of the extended cluster formed in the collision are discussed computing its energy and entropy density, shear viscosity over entropy density ratio, bulk viscosity, sound speed and trace anomaly as a function of temperature, showing a remarkable agreement with lattice QCD evaluations. The string percolation can be regarded as the initial frame able to describe the collective behavior produced in AA and pp collisions., Comment: 26 pages, 36 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1501.01524

The apparent thermalization of the particles produced in hadronic collisions can be obtained by quantum entanglement of the partons of the initial state once a fast hard collision is produced. The scale of the hard collision is related to the thermal temperature. As the probability distribution of these events is of the form $np(n)$, as a consequence, the von Neumann entropy is larger than in the minimum bias case. The leading contribution to this entropy comes from the logarithm of the number of partons $n$, all with equal probability, making maximal the entropy. In addition there is another contribution related to the width of the parton multiplicity. Asymptotically, the entanglement entropy becomes the logarithm of $\sqrt{n}$, indicating that the number of microstates changes with energy from $n$ to $\sqrt{n}$., Comment: 14 pages

In the color string picture with fusion and percolation the dependence of the flow coefficients $v_n$ on the transverse momentum is studied for pp collisions the LHC energy respectively. Monte-Carlo simulations are used to locate simple strings and their fused clusters. The results favorably agree with the CMS data in the region $0.2 \le p_t\le 3.$ GeV/c appropriate for the string scenario., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1407.4590

The thermalization of the particles produced in collisions of small size objects can be achieved by quantum entanglement of the partons of the initial state as it was analyzed recently in proton-proton collisions. We extend such study to Pb-Pb collisions and to different multiplicities of proton-proton collisions. We observe that, in all cases, the effective temperature is approximately proportional to the hard scale of the collision. We show that such relation between the thermalization temperature and the hard scale can be explained as a consequence of the clustering of the color sources. The fluctuations on the number of parton states decreases with multiplicity in Pb-Pb collisions as far as the width of the transverse momentum distributions decreases, contrary to the p-p case. We relate these fluctuations to the temperature time fluctuations by means of a Langevin equation for the white noise due to the quench of a hard parton collision., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures

Recently, the CMS Collaboration has published identified particle transverse momentum spectra in high multiplicity events at LHC energies $\sqrt s $ = 0.9-13 TeV. In the present work the transverse momentum spectra have been analyzed in the framework of the color fields inside the clusters of overlapping strings, which are produced in high energy hadronic collisions. The non-Abelian nature is reflected in the coherence sum of the color fields which as a consequence gives rise to an enhancement of the transverse momentum and a suppression of the multiplicities relative to the non overlapping strings. The initial temperature and shear viscosity to entropy density ratio $\eta/s$ are obtained. For the higher multiplicity events at $\sqrt s $ =7 and 13 TeV the initial temperature is above the universal hadronization temperature and is consistent with the creation of de-confined matter. In these small systems it can be argued that the thermalization is a consequence of the quantum tunneling through the event horizon introduced by the confining color fields, in analogy to the Hawking-Unruh effect. The small shear viscosity to entropy density ratio $\eta/s$ near the critical temperature suggests that the matter is a strongly coupled Quark Gluon Plasma., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures To appear in Phys. Rev. D

From our previously obtained shear viscosity to entropy density ratio ($\eta/s$) in the framework of clustering of color sources (Color String Percolation Model: CSPM), we calculate the jet quenching parameter $\hat {q}$ and trace anomaly $\Delta = (\varepsilon -3\it p)/T^{4}$ as a function of temperature. It is shown that the scaled $\hat {q}/T^{3}$ is in agreement with the recent JET Collaboration estimates. The inverse of $\eta/s$ is found to represent $\Delta$. The results for $\Delta$ are in excellent agreement with Lattice Quantum Chromo Dynamics (LQCD) simulations. From the trace anomaly and energy density $\epsilon$, the equation of state is obtained as a function of temperature and compared with LQCD simulations. It is possible that there is a direct connection between the $\eta/s$ and $\Delta$. Thus the estimate of transport coefficient $\eta/s$ provides $\hat {q}$ and $\Delta$ as a function of temperature. Both $\Delta$ and $\eta/s$ describe the transition from a strongly coupled QGP to a weakly coupled QGP., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1501.01524

It is shown that de-confinement can be achieved in high multiplicity non jet $\bar{p}$p collisions at $\sqrt{s}$= 1.8 TeV Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory(FNAL- E735) experiment. Previously the evidence for de-confinement was the demonstrated by the constant freeze out energy density in high multiplicity events. In this paper we use the same data but analyze the transverse momentum spectrum in the framework of the clustering of color sources. The charged particle pseudorapidities densities in the range 7.0 $\leq \langle dN_{c}/d\eta \rangle \leq$26.0 are considered. Results are presented for both thermodynamic and transport properties. The initial temperature and energy density are obtained and compared with the Lattice Quantum Chromo Dynamics(LQCD) simulations. The energy density ($\varepsilon/T^{4}$) $\sim$ 11.5 for $ \langle dN_{c}/d\eta \rangle \sim $ 25.0 is close to the value for 0-10\% central events in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$= 200 GeV. The shear viscosity to entropy density ratio($\eta/s$) is $\sim$ 0.2 at the transition temperature. The result for the trace anomaly $\Delta$ is in excellent agreement with LQCD simulations. These results confirm our earlier observation that the de-confined state of matter was created in high multiplicity events in $\bar{p}$p collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=1.8 TeV., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

We present the dependence of $D$ production on the charged particle multiplicity in proton-proton collisions at LHC energies. We show that, in a framework of source coherence, the open charm production exhibits a growth with the multiplicity which is stronger than linear in the high density domain. This departure from linearity was previously observed in the $J/\psi$ inclusive data from proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV and was successfully described in our approach. Our assumption, the existence of coherence effects present in proton-proton collisions at high energy, applies for high multiplicity proton-proton collisions in the central rapidity region and should affect any hard observable., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

A brief introduction of the relationship of string percolation to the Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) phase diagram is presented. The behavior of the Polyakov loop close to the critical temperature is studied in terms of the color fields inside the clusters of overlapping strings, which are produced in high energy hadronic collisions. The non-Abelian nature of the color fields implies an enhancement of the transverse momentum and a suppression of the multiplicities relative to the non overlapping case. The prediction of this framework are compared with experimental results from the SPS, RHIC and LHC for $pp$ and AA collisions. Rapidity distributions, probability distributions of transverse momentum and multiplicities, Bose-Einstein correlations, elliptic flow and ridge structures are used to evaluate these comparison. The thermodynamical quantities, the temperature, and energy density derived from RHIC and LHC data and Color String Percolation Model (CSPM) are used to obtain the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio ($\eta/s$). It was observed that the inverse of ($\eta/s$) represents the trace anomaly $\Delta =(\varepsilon-3P)/T^{4}$. Thus the percolation approach within CSPM can be successfully used to describe the initial stages in high energy heavy ion collisions in the soft region in high energy heavy ion collisions. The thermodynamical quantities, temperature and the equation of state are in agreement with the lattice QCD calculations. Thus the clustering of color sources has a clear physical basis although it cannot be deduced directly from QCD., Comment: 107 pages, 37 figures

In the colour string picture with fusion and percolation it is shown that long range azimuthal-rapidity correlations (ridge) can arise from the superposition of many events with exchange of clusters of different number of strings and not from a single event. Relation of the ridge with the flow harmonics coefficients is derived. By direct Monte-Carlo simulations, in the technique previously used to calculate these coefficients, ridge correlations are calculated for AA, pA and pp collisions. The azimuthal anisotropy follows from the assumed quenching of the emitted particles in the strong colour fields inside string clusters. It is confirmed that in pp collisions the ridge structure only appears in rare events with abnormally high multiplicity. Comarison with the experimental data shows a good agreement. Also a good agreement is found for pPb collisions. For AA collisions a reasonable agreement is found for both near-side and away-side angular correlations although it worsens at intermediate angles.

It is shown that the anomalous sharp increasing of the strength of the near-side ridge structures observed in Au-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 62 GeV and $\sqrt{s}=$ 200 GeV and the onset of the ridge structure in pPb and in pp collisions can be naturally explained in the framework of string percolation. In all the cases the near-side strength reflects the collision area covered by the strings stretched between the colliding objects and therefore it is related to the shape of their profile functions. The dependence of the pseudorapidty and azimuthal widths on multiplicty and energy is qualitatively explained., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

The presence of scaling variables in experimental observables provide very valuable indications of the dynamics underlying a given physical process. In the last years, the search for geometric scaling, that is the presence of a scaling variable which encodes all geometrical information of the collision as well as other external quantities as the total energy, has been very active. This is motivated, in part, for being one of the genuine predictions of the Color Glass Condensate formalism for saturation of partonic densities. Here we extend these previous findings to the case of experimental data on elliptic flow. We find an excellent scaling for all centralities and energies, from RHIC to LHC, with a simple generalization of the scaling previously found for other observables and systems. Interestingly the case of the photons, difficult to reconcile in most formalisms, nicely fit the scaling curve. We discuss the possible interpretations of this finding in terms of initial or final state effects., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys Rev C

It is shown that defining a suitable saturation momentum $Q_s$, the $p_T$ distributions of pp and AA collisions for any centrality and energy depend only on $\tau=p^2_T/Q_s^2$ for $p_T1$, the higher the energy or the larger the size of the participant nuclei, the larger suppression present the respective spectra. The integrated spectrum gives a fraction of the hard multiplicity in the range from 9% for pp at 0.9 TeV to 2% for Pb-Pb central collisions at 2.76 TeV., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays with energies above ~ 10^18 eV provide an unique window to study hadronic interactions at energies well above those achieved in the largest man-made accelerators. We argue that at those energies string percolation may occur and play an important role on the description of the induced Extensive Air Showers by enhancing strangeness and baryon production. This leads to a significant increase of the muon content of the cascade in agreement with recent data collected at UHECR experiments. In this work, the effects of string percolation in hadronic interactions are implemented in an EAS code and their impact on several shower observables is evaluated and discussed.

We calculate the inclusive spectra of secondaries produced in soft (minimum bias) p+Pb collisions in the framework of Quark-Gluon String Model at LHC energy, and by taking into account the inelastic screening corrections (percolation effects). The role of these effects is expected to be very large at very high energies, and they should decrease the spectra about 3 times in the midrapidity region and increase them about 2 times in the fragmentation region at the energy of LHC., Comment: 18 pages and 10 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0802.2195

A significant asymmetry in baryon/antibaryon yields in the central region of high energy collisions is observed when the initial state has non-zero baryon charge. This asymmetry is connected with the possibility of baryon charge diffusion in rapidity space. Such a diffusion should decrease the baryon charge in the fragmentation region and translate into the corresponding decrease of the multiplicity of leading baryons. As a result, a new mechanism for Feynman scaling violation in the fragmentation region is obtained. Another numerically more significant reason for the Feynman scaling violation comes from the fact that the average number of cutted Pomerons increases with initial energy. We present the quantitative predictions of the Quark-Gluon String Model (QGSM) for the Feynman scaling violation at LHC energies and at even higher energies that can be important for cosmic ray physics., Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, and 1 table. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1107.1615, arXiv:1007.3206

By direct Monte-Carlo simulations it is shown that the anisotropic flows can be successfully described in the colour string picture with fusion and percolation provided anisotropy of particle emission from the fused string is taken into account. Quenching of produced particles in the strong colour field of the string is the basic mechanism for this anisotropy. The concrete realization of this mechanism is borrowed from the QED. Due to dependence of this mechanism on the external field strength the found flows grow with energy, with values for $v_2$ at LHC energies greater by ~15% than at RHIC energies., Comment: New version with a non-static distribution of strings

We discuss the dependence of J/\psi\ production on the charged particle multiplicity in proton-proton collisions at LHC energies. We show that, in the framework of parton saturation or string interaction models, the hard J/\psi\ production exhibits a significant growth with the multiplicity, which is stronger than linear in the high density domain. This departure from linearity, that should affect any hard observable, applies for high multiplicity proton-proton collisions in the central rapidity region and is a consequence of the parton saturation or the strong interaction among colour ropes that take place at LHC energies. Our assumption, the existence of coherence effects present in proton-proton collisions at high energy, can also be checked by studying the particular shape of the probability distribution associated to the J/\psi\ production., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

The ALICE Collaboration has measured inclusive J/psi production in pp collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt(s)=2.76 TeV at the LHC. The results presented in this Letter refer to the rapidity ranges |y|<0.9 and 2.5

We study the evolution of the particle density, dn/d\eta at fixed \eta with the beam rapidity Y in the framework of string percolation model. Our main results are: (i) The width of the "plateau" increases proportionally to Y, (ii) limiting fragmentation is violated, and (iii) the particle density, reduces to a step function., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Nuclear Physics A. Minor changes are done

A significant asymmetry in baryon/antibaryon yields in the central region of high energy collisions is observed when the initial state has non-zero baryon charge. This asymmetry is connected with the possibility of a baryon charge diffusion in rapidity space. Evidently, such a diffusion should decrease the baryon charge in the fragmentation region leading to the corresponding decrease of the multiplicity of leading baryons. As a result, a new mechanism for Feynman scaling violation in the fragmentation region is obtained. We present the quantitative predictions for the Feynman scaling violation at LHC energies and even at highier energies that can be important for cosmic ray physics., Comment: 17 pages and 9 figures

The Color String Percolation Model (CSPM) is used to determine the shear viscosity to entropy ratio ($\eta/s$) of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) produced in Au-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV at RHIC and Pb-Pb at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV at LHC. The relativistic kinetic theory relation for $\eta/s$ is evaluated using CSPM values for the temperature and the mean free path of the QGP constituents. The experimental charged hadron transverse momentum spectrum is used to determine the percolation density parameter $\xi$ in Au-Au collisions (STAR). For Pb-Pb at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV $\xi$ values are obtained from the extrapolation at RHIC energy. The value of $\eta/s$ is 0.204$\pm$0.020 and 0.262$\pm$0.026 at the CSPM initial temperatures of 193.6$\pm$3 MeV (RHIC) and 262.2 $\pm$13 MeV (LHC) respectively. These values are 2.5 and 3.3 times the AdS/CFT conjectured lower bound $1/4\pi$. We compare the CSPM $\eta/s$ analytic expression with weak coupling (wQGP) and strong coupling (sQGP) calculations. This indicates that the QGP is a strongly coupled fluid in the phase transition region., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures Accepted for publication in European Physical Journal C (Particles & Fields)

We consider the first LHC data for pp collisions in the framework of Regge phenomenology, and the Quark-Gluon String Model, and we present the corresponding predictions for both the integral cross sections and the inclusive densities of secondaries, that are determined by Pomeron exchange. All parameters were fixed long time ago for the description of the data at fixed target energies. The first measurements of the total inelastic cross section by ATLAS and CMS Collaborations are in agreement with our calculations. Also the inclusive densities measured in the central region are in agreement with our theoretical predictions on the accuracy level of about 10-15%., Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of the Low-x Meeting 2011 (talk presented by Yu.M. Shabelski) 14 pages, 6 figures, and 4 tables

The percolation of strings gives a good description of the RHIC experimental data on the elliptic flow, v2 and predicted a rise on the integrated v2 of the order of 25% at LHC such as it has been experimentally obtained. We show that the dependence of v2 on pT for RHIC and LHC energies is approximately the same as it has been observed, for all the centralities. We show the results for different particles and the dependence of v2 on the centralities and rapidity. Our results are compatible with an small value of the ratio eta/s in the whole energy range such as it was expected in the percolation framework., Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures

The similarities between string percolation and Glasma results are emphasized, special attention being paid to rapidity long range correlations, ridge structure and elliptic flow. As the string density of high multiplicity pp collisions at LHC energies has similar value as the corresponding to Au-Au semi-central collisions at RHIC we also expect in pp collisions long rapidity correlations and ridge structure, extended more than 8 units in rapidity., Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, conference Quark Confinement and the hadron spectrum IX

We compare string percolation phenomenology to Glasma results on particle rapidity densities, effective string or flux tube intrinsic correlations, the ridge phenomena and long range forward-backward correlations. Effective strings may be a tool to extend the Glasma to the low density QCD regime. A good example is given by the minimum of the negative binomial distribution parameter k expected to occur at low energy/centrality., Comment: Submitted to Phys. Lett B

The clustering of color sources provides a natural framework for soft partonic interactions producing strong color fields. We study the consequences of these color fields in the production of heavy flavor and the behavior of the nuclear modification factor., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Physical Review C

It is shown that the elliptic flow can be successfully described in the color string picture with fusion and percolation provided anisotropy of particle emission from the fused string is taken into account. Two possible sources of this anisotropy are considered, propagation of the string in the transverse plane and quenching of produced particles in the strong color field of the string. Calculations show that the second source gives an overwhelming contribution to the flow at accessible energies., Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures

We discuss the elliptic flow dependence on pseudorapidity and number of participating nucleons in the framework of string percolation, and argue that the geometry of the initial overlap region of interaction, projected in the impact parameter plane, determines the experimentally measured azimuthal asymmetries. We found good agreement with data., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

We study the RHIC data on long range rapidity correlations, comparing their main trends with different string model simulations. Particular attention is paid to color percolation model and its similarities with color glass condensate. As both approaches corresponds, at high density, to a similar physical picture, both of them give rise to a similar behavior on the energy and the centrality of the main observables. Color percolation explains the transition from low density to high density., Comment: Contribution to the meeting : Saturation, the CGC and the Glasma BNL. May 10-12, accepted in Nuclear Physics A

We consider the first LHC data for pp collisions in the framework of Regge theory. The integral cross sections and inclusive densities of secondaries are determined by the Pomeron exchange, and we present the corresponding predictions for them. The first measurements of inclusive densities in midrapidity region are in agreement with these predictions. The possible contribution of Odderon (Reggeon with alpha(Odd)(0) ~ 1 and negative signature) exchange to the differences in the inclusive spectra of particle and antiparticle in the central region could be significant at LHC energies. The first data of ALICE Collaboration are consistent with a very small Odderon contribution. Probably, further LHC data will definitely settle the question of the Odderon existence., Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures, and 6 tables

Charm production in pp collisions is considered in the framework of perturbative QCD. The values of two parameters, the charm quark mass $m_c$ and the QCD scale mu^2, are determined from the comparison of the theoretical calculations with experimental data. The RHIC data on charm and beauty production are compared with the k_T-factorization approach predictions and with standard NLO QCD. The calculated results underestimate the STAR Collaboration data. The role of possible nuclear effects is discussed. The predictions for LHC energies are also given., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, and 3 tables

The collective interactions of many partons in the first stage of the collisions is the usual accepted explanation of the sizable elliptical flow. The clustering of color sources provides a framework of partonic interactions. In this scheme, we show a reasonable agreement with RHIC data for pT<1.5 GeV/c in both the dependence of v2 transverse momentum and in the shape of the nuclear modified factor on the azimuthal angle for different centralities. We show the predictions at LHC energies for Pb-Pb. In the case of proton-proton collisions a sizable v2 is obtained at this energy., Comment: To appear in Journal of Physics G

We argue that string percolation is in the origin of i) an approximately flat rapidity distribution and of ii) an approximately constant forward-backward correlation parameter $b$ over a substantial fraction of the available rapidity. Predictions are given for $pp$ collisions at LHC, $\sqrt{s}=14$TeV and $\sqrt{s}=5.5$TeV., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures (eps), latex

We study the modification of the multiplicity distributions in MLLA due to the presence of a QCD medium. The medium is introduced though a multiplicative constant ($f_{med}$) in the soft infrared parts of the kernels of QCD evolution equations. Using the asymptotic ansatz for quark and gluons mean multiplicities $=e^{\gamma y}$ and $=r^{-1}e^{\gamma y}$ respectively, we study two cases: fixed $\gamma$ as previously considered in the literature, and fixed $\alpha_s$. We find opposite behaviors of the dispersion of the multiplicity distributions with increasing $f_{med}$ in both cases. For fixed $\gamma$ the dispersion decreases, while for fixed $\alpha_s$ it increases., Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 4 eps figures; proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Hard and Electromagnetic Probes in High-Energy Nuclear Collisions - Hard Probes 2008 (Illa de A Toxa, Spain, June 8th-14th 2008)