Inclusive Spectra and Quantum Stochastic Processes

Abstract

We try to explain the apparently "thermal" shape of the inclusive transverse momentum spectrum. We conjecture that prior to the collision, parton-parton interactions generate a kind of a stochastic process driving the one-particle spectrum within a hadron towards the thermal shape it would have in a classical gas. We illustrate this idea, which might have a more general relevance, with a simple, exactly solvable model.