Origin of collectivity and strangeness enhancement in p–Pb collisions

Determine the physical origin of the collective behavior and strangeness enhancement observed in proton–lead collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision of 5.02 TeV, clarifying whether these effects arise from quark–gluon plasma formation or other mechanisms specific to small systems.

Background

The paper notes that proton–lead collisions at LHC energies exhibit features—collectivity and strangeness enhancement—traditionally associated with quark–gluon plasma formation in heavy-ion collisions. However, in small systems like p–Pb, the underlying mechanism responsible for these signals is unsettled.

This unresolved origin motivates comprehensive measurements of charged-particle multiplicity distributions over wide pseudorapidity ranges, providing quantitative inputs to constrain and improve theoretical models of particle production in p–Pb.