Description of High-Energy pp Collisions Using Tsallis Thermodynamics: Transverse Momentum and Rapidity Distributions

Abstract

A systematic analysis of transverse momentum and rapidity distributions measured in high-energy proton - proton (pp) collisions for energies ranging from 53 GeV to 7 TeV using Tsallis thermodynamics is presented. The excellent description of all transverse momentum spectra obtained in earlier analyses is confirmed and extended. All energies can be described by a single Tsallis temperature of 68 +/- 5 MeV at all beam energies and particle types investigated (43 in total). The value of the entropic index, q, shows a wider spread but is always close to q approx 1.146. These values are then used to describe the rapidity distributions using a superposition of two Tsallis fireballs along the rapidity axis. It is concluded that the hadronic system created in high-energy p - p collisions between 53 GeV and 7 TeV can be seen as obeying Tsallis thermodynamics.