Probing fluctuating protons using forward neutrons in soft and hard inelastic proton-nucleus scattering

Abstract

We present a model for the distribution of the number of forward neutrons emitted in soft (minimum bias) and hard inelastic proton-nucleus ($pA$) scattering at the LHC. It is based on the Gribov-Glauber model for the distribution over the number of inelastic collisions (wounded nucleons) combined with a parametrization of cross section (color) fluctuations in the projectile proton, which depend on the parton momentum fraction $x_p$, and the assumption of independent neutron emissions. We observe that while the effect of soft color fluctuations is modest, a reduction of the interaction strength with increasing $x_p$ provides the dominant effect. It allows us to qualitatively describe the trend of the ATLAS data on the ZDC energy spectra of forward neutrons emitted in dijet production in inelastic $pA$ scattering at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=8.16$ TeV.