Transverse momentum and pseudo-rapidity density distributions of charged particles produced in pp and Au–Au collisions at $\sqrt{{s}_{NN}}=200$  GeV at RHIC

Abstract

In this paper, we have reported the transverse momentum ($p_{T}$) spectra of averaged charged pions ($\pi^{ \pm }$), kaons ($K^{ \pm }$), protons and antiprotons in $pp$ and most central 0–6% Au–Au collisions at $\sqrt {s_{NN} }$ = 200 GeV. The simulation is done by models including EPOS-LHC, EPOS-1.99, and QGSJETII-04. The transverse momentum ($p_{T}$) distributions are plotted for $\left( {\pi^{ + } + \pi^{ - } } \right)/2,$ $(K^{ + } + K^{ - } )/2$ and $\left( {p + \overline{p}} \right)/2$ in the $p_{T}$ range of 0 < $p_{T}$ < 3 GeV/c, 0 < $p_{T}$ < 2 GeV/c and 0.5 < $p_{T}$ < 4.5 GeV/c, respectively. We have also plotted the pseudo-rapidity distributions of charged hadrons produced in pp and Au–Au collisions at $\sqrt {s_{NN} }$ = 200 GeV. This analysis also includes the nuclear modification factor ($R_{AA}$) which is plotted as a function of $p_{T}$ to study the effects of deconfined medium created in most central Au–Au collisions. Simulation data are compared with the experimental data. The simulated distributions are compared to the RHIC experimental data at $\sqrt {s_{NN} }$ = 200 GeV for both collision systems in order to validate the above-mentioned simulation codes. Although it is observed that a good comparison exists between the models predictions and experimental data but none of them completely describe the experimental data over the entire $p_{T}$ and η range.