A framework for hadronic rescattering in pp collisions

Abstract

Abstract In this article, a framework for hadronic rescattering in the general-purpose Pythia event generator is introduced. The starting point is the recently presented space–time picture of the hadronization process. It is now extended with a tracing of the subsequent motion of the primary hadrons, including both subsequent scattering processes among them and decays of them. The major new component is cross-section parameterizations for a range of possible hadron–hadron combinations, applicable from threshold energies upwards. The production dynamics in these collisions has also been extended to cope with different kinds of low-energy processes. The properties of the model are studied, and some first comparisons with LHC $$\mathrm {p}\mathrm {p}$$ p p data are presented. Whereas it turns out that approximately half of all final particles participated in rescatterings, the net effects in $$\mathrm {p}\mathrm {p}$$ p p events are still rather limited, and only striking in a few distributions. The new code opens up for several future studies, however, such as effects in $$\mathrm {p}$$ p A and AA collisions.