2004/11/17 by Thomas A. Trainor, T. A. Trainor, Trainor, Thomas A. +3
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Nuclear physics research studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-ph/0411217
21 pages, 18 figures, extensive rewrite, with addition of appendices on numerical integration and systematic errors in participant number calculations
openalex publication_date 2004/11/17 · arxiv created 2007/01/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The minimum-bias distribution on heavy ion collision multiplicity nch is well approximated by power-law form nch-3/4, suggesting that a change of variable to nch1/4 may provide more precise access to the structure of the distribution and to A-A collision centrality. We present a detailed centrality study of Hijing-1.37 Monte Carlo data at 200 GeV using the power-law format. We find that the minimum-bias distribution on nparticipant1/4, determined with a Glauber Monte Carlo simulation, is uniform except for a 5% sinusoidal variation. The power-law format reveals precise linear relations between Glauber parameters npart and nbin and the fractional cross section. The power-law format applied to RHIC data facilitates incorporation of extrapolation constraints on data and Glauber distributions to obtain a ten-fold improvement in centrality accuracy for peripheral collisions.