We analyze the inclusive spectra of hadrons produced in $pp$ collisions at high energies in the mid-rapidity region within the soft QCD and perturbative QCD assuming the possible creation of the soft gluons at low intrinsic transverse momenta $k_t$. From the best description of the LHC data we found the parametrization of the unintegrated gluon distribution which at low $k_t$ is different from the one obtained within the perturbative QCD.
The hadron inclusive spectra in pp collisions at high energies are analyzed within a soft QCD model, namely the quark-gluon string model. In addition to the sea quark distribution in the incoming proton we consider also the unintegrated gluon distribution that has an increasing behaviour when the gluon transverse momentum grows. It leads to an increase of the inclusive spectra of hadrons and their multiplicity in the central rapidity region of pp collision at LHC energies.
The production of charmed and beauty hadrons in proton-proton collisions at high energies are analyzed within the modified quark-gluon string model (QGSM) including the internal motion of quarks in colliding hadrons. We present some predictions for the future experiments on the beauty baryon production in $pp$ collisions at LHC energies. This analysis allows us to find interesting information on the Regge trajectories of the heavy (b{bar b}) mesons and the sea beauty quark distributions in the proton.
We show that the diffractive forward production of two quarkonia, especially the $chi_{cJ}$ and $eta_c$ states, in proton-proton or proton-ion collisions can access the Weizsacker-Williams gluon Wigner distribution of the proton. We use the hybrid factorization approach where the collinear, double gluon PDF is applied for one of the protons and the $k_T$-dependent (Wigner or GTMD) distribution for the other. The production of quarkonia is treated in the NRQCD framework. A particularly concise formula is obtained for double $chi_{J=1}$ production.
Hadron inclusive spectra in pp collisions are analyzed within the modified quark-gluon string model including both the longitudinal and transverse motion of quarks in the proton in the wide region of initial energies. The self-consistent analysis shows that the experimental data on the inclusive spectra of light hadrons like pions and kaons at ISR energies can be satisfactorily described at transverse momenta not larger than 1-2 GeV/c. We discuss some difficulties to apply this model at energies above the ISR and suggest to include the distribution of gluons in the proton unintegrated over the internal transverse momentum. It leads to an increase in the inclusive spectra of hadrons and allows us to extend the satisfactory description of the data in the central rapidity region at energies higher than ISR.
The nuclear modification factor $R_{pA}(p_T)$ provides information on the small-$x$ gluon distribution of a nucleus at hadron colliders. Several experiments have recently measured the nuclear modification factor not only in minimum bias but also for central $pA$ collisions. In this paper we analyze the bias on the configurations of soft gluon fields introduced by a centrality selection via the number of hard particles. Such bias can be viewed as reweighting of configurations of small-$x$ gluons. We find that the biased nuclear modification factor ${cal Q}_{pA}(p_T)$ for central collisions is above $R_{pA}(p_T)$ for minimum bias events, and that it may redevelop a Cronin peak even at small $x$. The magnitude of the peak is predicted to increase approximately like $1/{A_{perp}}^ u$, $ usim0.6pm0.1$, if one is able to select more compact configurations of the projectile proton where its gluons occupy a smaller transverse area $A_perp$. We predict an enhanced ${cal Q}_{pp}(p_T)-1 sim 1/(p_T^2)^ u$ and a Cronin peak even for central $pp$ collisions.