Rapidity fluctuations in the initial state

Abstract

We analyze two-particle pseudorapidity correlations in a simple model, where strings of fluctuating length are attached to wounded nucleons.The obtained straightforward formulas allow us to understand the anatomy of the correlations, i.e., to identify the component due to the fluctuation of the number of wounded nucleons and the contribution from the string length fluctuations. Our results reproduce qualitatively and semiquantitatively the basic features of the recent correlation measurements at the LHC.