Charged particle multiplicity distributions derived from the Principle of Maximal Entropy

Abstract

Recent theoretical results renewed the interest in charged particle multiplicity distributions. The Shannon entropy of such distributions is conjectured to be related to the entanglement or von Neumann entropy of partonic quantum system. In this paper, we show that the measured charged particle multiplicities can be derived from the principle of maximum entropy (POME or MAXENT) without any a priori physical assumption. The approach provides a natural explanation for the well-known negative binomial shape of the measured distributions.