Prediction of the particle production in pp collisions with the MPD detector at NICA collider

Abstract

The proton-proton collisions have been extensively used as a baseline reference for nucleus-nucleus collisions. In this work, Monte Carlo simulations of inelastic head-on pp interactions at s=6−25 GeV$\sqrt s = 6 - 25\,{\rm{GeV}}$ were performed to study the possibilities of the Multi–Purpose Detector (MPD) to register data from small systems at the energy range of NICA. For that purpose the Monte Carlo models EPOS 1.99 and UrQMD 3.4 were used as event generators to analyse the charge particle yield from pp collisions in the framework of MpdRoot. The production of protons, pions and kaons from pp collisions was studied through their mean multiplicity, rapidity spectra and particle ratios as function of the collision energy. The yield of Λ hyperons was also estimated by means of pure Monte Carlo and the reconstruction of the simulated data in MPD. The comparison with recent data from NA61/SHINE experiment is presented.